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| Bayano Valy |
Anecdotal evidence in Mozambique
shows that there are men who perform care and household workbelieving they are
helping their partners – this is grounded in evidence from pre- and
post-evaluation courses of the programme “Men in the Kitchen.”
“Men in the Kitchen” is a programme
designed and implemented by Rede
HOPEM (Men
for Change) which seeks to challenge power relations by getting men to question
hegemonic masculinities using a gender transformative approach. The course has
trained more than 200 men since its inception in 2014. Alongside “Men in the
Kitchen”, the men are trained in further care work such as child care through
their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The men who participate in the
courses say they are more than interested in gender-progressive activities
within the household but are not exactly comfortable expressing such behaviour
publicly due to societal pressure.
Incidentally, when the men come in
to hone their skills, they believe they are doing so in order to better “help”
their partners. It is after going through the theoretical component of the
programmes that they realise that as men doing care and household work, they
are not helping but sharing the house
care workload.
This notion is dispelled in the
courses. Rather, they should in fact increase their workload within the
household in order to promote gender equality. The courses also encourage them
to develop their abilities in the household and make choices to continue doing
the work without regard to societal pressure, stereotypes and prejudices, as
well as lead them to realise that it is their responsibility to work in the
household as full partners.
Perhaps the most appealing feature
of male involvement in gender promotion is that men themselves stand to gain
much from a gender-equal society. However, this is still a tough sell for most
men brought up in a society in which patriarchy still reigns supreme – not only
is swimming against the patriarchal tide socially costly but it also requires a
support network which is still incipient.
Paradoxically, the people who should
real be the happier from the toils of their men-folk in care and household work
seem to be ambivalent. When consulted months after taking part in the courses,
a larger group of men said that their partners saw their newfound enthusiasm for
engaging in care work as an invasion of their private space. A smaller group
reported that their womenfolk were happy to see the transformation.
But worryingly, a third group said
that their partners were questioning their manhood, and rather than welcoming
the change, they started displaying hegemonic masculinity traits – maybe this
is because the only reference women have of “leadership” are men who are
constrained by the ossified edifice of patriarchy.
What the evaluations suggest is that
that there is a need for the implementation of gender synchronised approaches
in order to ensure that their partners encourage them to share the workload
rather than question their manhood or even belittle them.
It is crucially to put in place strategies
for the creation of an enabling environment for men who seek to break away from
the yoke of patriarchy. Such spaces could simply be club houses where men could
go and mingle with other like-minded men, as well as share their experiences.
That is likely to ensure that not
only more and more men perform care and household work but do so in the
knowledge that their work is appreciated by their partners and society, and
that they are not helpers but partners who want to achieve gender equality in
all aspects of the concept.
Bayano Valy is the Advocacy,
Research and Network Programme Manager for Rede HOPEM and a proudly avowed
feminist. In his previous life he worked as a journalist tackling a plethora of
issues with a focus on politics, economics, gender and development.
