Feminist Project Seeks to Understand Men

by Rashidah Abdullah

Men are the focus of a new project of the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group (IRRRAG).1

This may seem surprising as IRRRAG is a coalition of feminist researchers, and women, not men, are usually involved in feminist research. After all, it is commonly argued, there is so much that is not yet known about women’s needs, perspectives and visions, that women themselves as a neglected and marginalised group must be asked and listened to first.

This was the position of IRRRAG when in 1992, it decided on its first research project on women’s perception of their reproductive rights or their perceived entitlements in making decisions in the areas of childbearing, contraception, abortion and sexuality.

This necessitated asking women themselves what they thought, felt and experienced, particularly poor women who had fewer opportunities to express their views and to have these considered in the formulation of health and population policies. IRRRAG research teams in Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines and the U.S. focused on understanding women, although in several countries some men were also interviewed.

The research findings on women’s reproductive rights however, also raised questions about women’s relations with men. What did women actually want of men in the area of decisions on sexuality and reproduction?

Findings indicated that some women did not want men to take more responsibility for using contraception as they did not trust their partners to use it as effectively as women would. These women wanted to remain in control of their own fertility. The objective of family-planning agencies to "increase men’s involvement" in reproductive-health decision-making would not be a priority for such women. Women justified this entitlement to make decisions on contraception or abortion on their own by explaining that they were the ones to bear, give birth and take care of the children.

In 1999, IRRRAG embarked on its second research project on "Men’s Responsibility in Sexual and Reproductive-health Decision-Making," with five of the original groups involved (Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria and the Philippines).

The main concern was that increased attention to and interpretations of "men’s involvement" in the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (1994) and the Beijing Conference on Women (1995) could inadvertently result retrogressively in lessening the control women had over their own fertility and reproductive decisions. There was a need to investigate the assumptions that women wanted men to play a bigger role in reproductive-health decision-making, that men also desired this, and that such a change would result in more equitable gender relations. It had been observed that often, new social policies and programme approaches were designed on the basis of assumptions that had not been tested. In addition, efforts to change men’s behaviour had not been successful. For example, despite family planning programmes having a long-term objective since the mid-1970s of "increasing men’s participation" in contraception by more men using condoms, condom rates remain low throughout the world.

There was thus a need to understand men better, why they behave as they do, and what they believe about their own entitlements and those of women in the area of sexuality and reproduction.

A number of stereotypes about men’s attitudes and behaviour existed, which were thought to not necessarily reflect in reality the diversity of men’s experience. For example, some men treasured fatherhood beginning with childbirth, but the gender stereotype is of men who do not love and care for their children as much as women. Perhaps this inadequate knowledge was related to the lack of in-depth research on men and was one of the reasons why programmes directed to men were not successful. Gender relations globally had also changed little over the last 30 years, despite the feminist movement.

An additional rationale for the research was that the concept of "men’s involvement" needed to be clarified. The Cairo and Beijing conference documents did not clearly explain that the concept in these conferences was intended to be linked as a strategy to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. Men’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviour about themselves and about women needed to change as did that of women, in order to have an outcome of an equal valuing of gender differences. The roots of the concept went back to population and family planning in the 1970s, when the reason for increasing men’s participation was a demographic objective of improving contraceptive usage rates and not a gender equality goal. This was one of the reasons for the confusion. Historically, it had a different meaning but although it was a new concept, the words to describe it remained the same.

Thus, although IRRRAG decided to focus on understand-ing men, the intention was that the new insights and knowledge gained would be for the benefit of women, not to better meet the needs of men. This is a very important distinction, as the confusion about the term "men’s involvement" after the Cairo Conference has sometimes led reproductive-health programmes to interpret the objective as being to better meet men’s health needs. New services for men such as prostate and testicular screening and impotence treatment have been set up in some countries in order to "involve" men in reproductive-health services and meet their needs. Men’s reproductive-health needs however are a separate concern from "men’s involvement" and the two issues should not be interrelated.

The gender approach is simi-larly misunderstood. Instead of beginning with the concept of gender inequality—the fact that men and women’s relationships globally are characterised by unequal power, resulting in serious negative consequences for women’s well-being—there is an assumption that a gender focus means that both women and men’s different gender needs have to be identified and met. Addressed as a sociological construct, gender relations and gender sensitisation programmes thus become depoliticised, leaving out the element of power. Feminists who use gender relations in their theoretical frameworks need to be able to clearly explain gender relations, gender inequality and men’s gender roles in decision-making as linked to women’s empowerment, the goal of feminism.

With this background of conceptual confusion plus lack of clarity on what women want of men and what men actually think and feel about their role and women’s entitlements, the following IRRRAG research objectives were formulated:

• To clarify the meaning of "reproductive rights" for women and for men in diverse cultural, national and social contexts, and to unravel the complex concept of "male involvement" and its link to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
• To translate those meanings and concepts into a locally relevant analysis able to inform larger quantitative demographic and population studies/surveys.
• To inform international policy, programmes and projects on male involvement in reproductive and sexual health, so that interventions geared towards male involvement and responsibility promote women’s equality and freedom from inequitable burdens, and do not diminish their resources or control.

The central theme is to investigate the relations between women and men in negotiating reproductive and sexual decisions, so as to elicit answers to two interrelated sets of questions.

From the standpoint of women:

• In what ways do male behaviour and belief systems impact on women’s choices?
• In particular, to what extent do male violence and abuse contribute to women’s secrecy and fear in reproductive choices?
• When is increased participation of men in decision-making sought or indeed desirable from women’s perspective? and
• Do women want more communication with men on these issues; why or why not?

From the standpoint of men:

• In what ways do women’s beliefs and actions impact on male behaviour?
• Do men desire to share responsibility in negotiating contraception, child bearing, childcare, abortion and protection against sexually transmitted diseases?
• In which matters do they respect women’s entitlement, or assume women’s primary responsibility? and
• In which areas do they claim primary decision-making authority for themselves, or feel their position or identity threatened by women’s independent actions?

Research Methodology

As in IRRRAG’s first research, this project is a qualitative action research using primarily in-depth interviews and focus group discussion. It is a predominantly ethnographic research, seeking to understand culture from people’s own perspectives. An average of 180 men and women in each of the five countries have been included in the study. Of these, about one-third have involved individual interviews with men, the rest being both men and women in group interviews (or focus group discussions). Most have been low-income people, and ethnicity, age and rural-urban locations have been taken into consideration.

An innovative methodology used is the gender-interactive dialogue. Women first were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the roots of men’s sense of entitlements, and find out what kind of involvement in their sexual and reproductive-health responsibilities they want from the men in their lives. Then men were interviewed, individually and in groups, to understand their own perceptions on the same concerns and also in response to the perceptions women articulated. The research team is comprised of both women and men.

Finally, as a feminist action research, the intent is to take back an analysis of the research findings to the communities interviewed and have a dialogue with individual groups of men and women and possibly mixed groups aimed to assist in the process of change in gender relations. Other advocacy actions will be planned locally and nationally to discuss, disseminate and utilise the findings to improve programmes and services for women.

Some of the specific research questions that emerged in the research planning meeting in 1999 and are being explored in the research are for example:

What are men’s and women’s differing expectations of parenthood? What do men invest in their children? What are the costs of fertility for men? What do men perceive as their own and women’s sexual needs and pleasure? How do men and women perceive and construct masculinity and femininity? What are men’s notions of self-control and control over others? What impels men to violence and what is their understanding of women’s experience of violence?

What motivates men and what are the roots of self-esteem? How do men perceive and articulate their sense of entitlement, i.e. their personal rights, privileges and responsibilities? How much of their feeling of power arises out of their construction of masculinity and femininity within this larger framework of entitlement and personhood? How do they view women’s entitlements to autonomy, aspirations, rights, sexual pleasure and personhood? To what extent does men’s sense of entitlement rest on a belief in a natural order, and how much is seen as, what is in fact, an unequal exercise of rights between men and women?

What are the conditions under which men feel compelled to conform, i.e., accommodate to the dominant structures of unequal power, and to the cultural norms that privilege them? And, what are those elements in these dominant structures that men feel the need to challenge or resist? And, when men question the traditional norms, how do they do this—in silence, or within the household, or in small groups, or in the public sphere?

A critical challenge for this research is to be able to elicit from men what they actually think and do—rather than a response based on what they think they should believe or do (the normative). In the first IRRRAG research on reproductive rights, it was possible to make this distinction in women’s voices. For example, in relation to abortion, across countries and cultures women explained that they knew their respective religious stand on abortion and what was the predominant view. However, they were able to distinguish between community norms and their own views and values which they used in decision-making, which was explained as "a practical morality based on women’s bodily suffering and social responsibility for women which usually takes precedence over religious belief and the teachings of the Catholic church or Islamic clerics when it comes to women’s reproductive decision making." (Petchesky and Judd, 1998).

We very much hope that the researchers will be able to encourage men participating in this research to speak openly and honestly about themselves and men in general, and not in stereotypical and normative terms so that an enlarged reality about men’s identity and behaviour will be understood and can be discussed.

Research teams in the five countries have now completed their fieldwork and are in the process of analysis and report writing. This is planned to be followed by a researcher’s meeting and publications output this year and some local, national, regional and international policy and programme advocacy.

Unfortunately, despite the importance of the research globally, the UNFPA financial crisis in 1999 meant a 40 percent cut in the project budget agreed on in principle. Funds are still being raised in order to complete the project.

Rashidah Abdullah is founder and Co-Director of Asia-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional women’s organisation based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which focuses on women’s health and rights. She’s also a member of Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian women’s NGO, and founding member of Women’s Aid Organisation, Malaysia. Before coming to Malaysia, Rashidah was part of the women’s movement in western Australia in the early 1970s.

References

Petchesky, Rosalind P; Martin Hilber, Adriane [eds.] et.al. 1998. Catalysts and Messengers: The Story of the International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group. 36p.

Petchesky, Rosalind P; Judd, Karen [eds.]. 1998. Negotiating Reproductive Rights: Women’s Perspectives across Countries and Cultures. London: Zed Books. 358p.

Ramasubban, Radhika. Nov. 2000. "Men: Sexuality, Rights and the Construction of Personhood; The IRRRAG Five-Country Study: Concepts, methodologies and action plans," Qweb Seminar on Choice and Power - Reproductive Rights for Women and Men, Stockholm. 25p. [QWeb: http://www.qweb-kvinnoforum. se]

Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women. Abdullah, Rashidah, May 1996. "Men’s Roles and Responsibilities in Reproduction;" ARROWs For Change, Vol. 2, No. 1.

Abdullah, Rashidah. Nov. 2000. Opening Remarks for the session "Men’s Reproductive Rights in Context." [QWeb: http://www.qweb-kvinnoforum.se]

Seminar on Choice and Power—Reproductive Rights for Women and Men, Stockholm.

Footnote:

 1 The IRRRAG research on men includes the following groups and coordinators: Brazil— Coletivo Feminista Sexualidade e Saude (Ana Paula Potella); Malaysia IRRRAG Malaysia group of researchers/activists (Dr.Siti Norazah Zulkifli and Dr Wong Yut Lin); Mexico Cinquenta y Uno Porciento (Dr Adriana Ortiz-Ortega); Nigeria IRRRAG Nigeria (Grace Osakue); Philippines: WomanHealth Philippines (Mercy Fabros).

The Project Advisor is Dr Rosalind Petchesky of Hunter’s College, New York and the former International Coordinator of the first IRRRAG project. The Research Consultant is Dr Radhika Ramasubban, Director of the Centre for Social and Technological Change, Mumbai, India.

Funding has been obtained from the Foreign Ministry, Sweden (through UNFPA and independently) and the World Bank.

Men’s Involvement in Gender Equality Movements in Japan 

by Hiroko Hashimoto

Lowest among the developed countries, Japan was ranked 41st by the United Nations Development Programme in terms of the Gender Empowerment Measure in the year 2000. There are three main factors behind such an unfavourable evaluation.

One, Japanese women have little participation in political activities. The ratio of females in Parliament is only 7.5 percent (104th in the world, according to a survey conducted by the Inter Parliamentary Union).

Two, female managers are few. The ratio of female managers in Japan is less than 10 percent, the lowest among the developed countries and lower than in many developing countries including the Philippines.

And three, women earn much less than men. On the average, their income is only around 52 percent of the income of Japanese men.

In 1999, the Japanese government promulgated a Basic Law for Gender Equal Society. Declaring it a policy to promote equal participation of women and men in family matters as well as in society, the law directs the government at all levels to take positive actions for the promotion of gender equality.

Some local governments have already enacted their own legislation. In fact, even before the Prime Minister announced his plan to formulate the Basic Law for Gender Equal Society at the Parliament, Saitama prefecture had already organised a research group to draw up such an ordinance. The result is a more detailed ordinance that includes law enforcement and provides for the establishment of a grievance committee to assist victims of violence and other violations of women’s human rights. In Tokyo, on the other hand, the local government can request private companies to report on the status of their implementation of gender equality.

Furthermore, an alliance of women parliamentarians from various parties plans to submit a draft law to the current Parliament for the prevention of domestic violence.

Gender equality in Japan is still far behind the situation in other Asian countries. One aspect is that most Japanese men have not been involved in this issue, and this is what the present paper focuses on.

Men’s Involvement in Gender Equality as Public Work

In No. 1, 2001, the national machinery for the advancement of women was upgraded to the status of Bureau, under the Cabinet Office, from being an Office under the Prime Minister. Officers of the Gender Equality Bureau consist of 22 women and 17 men. Among the managers, four are women and five are men. Although the top manager (the Director General) is a woman and 56 percent of all staff members are women, most of the managers are men. Even this ratio is special, since the percentage of female government officials at managerial level in Japan in 2000 is only 1.1 percent.

I conducted a study on the status of gender focal points and gender mainstreaming in all 47 prefectures and the 12 specially designated cities in Japan in 1997.

According to the results of the study, there were 55 female officers and 45 male officers at the gender focal points/women’s office of the 47 prefectures. At managerial level, more women were found (58 versus 42 male managers). Since the percentage of women among all local government managers is only 3.4 percent as of 2000, this figure shows that mostly female officers are working to promote gender equality. On the other hand, quite a number of male officers are also employed in this job, although many women NGOs frequently complain that these men hardly show their passion for promoting gender equality.

Public servants in Japan usually transfer from one job to another every two or three years. For both female and male civil servants, gender focal points/women’s offices are only one of these assignments. They acquire their expertise on gender issues through their work, regardless of their sex.

Many elective officials—mayors, governors and city councillors—have supported gender equality, partly to demonstrate their concern for female voters.

Attitudes Towards Feminism and/or Gender Equality

There has been a gradual decrease in the stereotyped idea that "men work outside and women stay at home." According to a national opinion poll conducted in 1997 on attitudes towards gender equality, 65 percent of the male respondents and 52 percent of the females agreed with this idea. The attitude is more prevalent in rural rather than urban areas.

A similar opinion poll conducted in 2000 focused on male attitudes towards gender equality. More women (83 percent) and men (77 percent) agreed that men should take a leave from their jobs to take care of family members who are sick. But child-care leaves for men were supported by only 70 percent of the women and 67 percent of the men. All generations of both men and women agreed to men’s taking leave in case of illness in the family. The older people, however, were less receptive to child-care leave for men than the younger women. Regarding domestic chores, 83 percent of female and 71 percent of male respondents believed that men should share in the housework. The older they were, the less women supported that idea, while among the men no such age pattern is distinct.

It may be concluded that most Japanese, whether women or men, accept stereotyped sex roles. However, younger women are the least likely to agree.

Sharing Domestic Chores

Article 6 of the Basic Law for Gender Equal Society states that men and women should equally share domestic chores including child rearing and caring for sick family members.

However, husbands spend an average time of 20 minutes per day on housework, whether their wives are employed outside the home or not. Husbands in their 40s work the least, while husbands in their 20s perform chores a bit longer. It may be concluded that Japanese men are not undertaking domestic chores like their counterparts in other countries.

Therefore, many Japanese women have to quit their jobs when they marry or give birth to their first child. Japan is one of the very few countries where the labour activity rate of women drops sharply in their late 30s to early 40s. Another developed country where this phenomenon has been observed is the Republic of Korea.

Persistence of Patriarchy in the Rural Areas

Niigata prefecture (whose main product is expensive rice) is richer than other prefectures whose economies are also mostly agricultural. Yet 35 percent of women in Niigata’s farming families have no bank account in their own names, nor do they possess their own properties.

The Japanese government has promoted the "family management agreement" scheme, to increase the economic independence of rural women. Once families make the agreement, its women members could obtain a minimum salary for their farming work. However, only 480 out of a total 123,160 farming families in Niigata prefecture have entered into such an agreement.

The truth is, many conservative politicians of the ruling party of Japan do not appreciate the "family management agreement" scheme. They strongly opposed its inclusion in the Basic Plan for Gender Equality which was discussed and approved by the Cabinet at a meeting in December 2000. Because of their opposition, the Ministry of Agriculture had to drop the agreement from the Basic Plan. The conservative politicians fear that such a scheme could destroy the traditional family system in Japan.

However, rural families today already find it extremely difficult to pass their occupation and properties on to the next generation, as their sons can hardly find Japanese women willing to marry them. It is no longer acceptable for most women to work long hours on the farm, without any economic independence and having to obey and take care of their parents-in-law.

I myself grew up in a rural area in Japan. My late father became a farmer as he had to leave the Imperial Navy after World War II. My mother repeatedly told me that I should get a good education so that I would not need to marry a farmer. At the age of 16, I left my family to study at a prestigious high school in the city. Since then, I have returned to the village only for short visits.

Inevitably, some of those rural men who remain unmarried until their 40s and 50s obtain brides in their 20s from other Asian countries such as China and the Philippines by paying 3-4 million yen (US$25,000-33,000) to the women’s families.

Re-emergence of Right-wing Fundamentalism

Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling party of Japan supported the passage of the Basic Law for Gender Equal Society, convinced by the party leaders’ argument that the law would ensure the necessary supply of qualified personnel in the labour force. It is estimated that Japan will face a serious labour shortage in the 21st century due to the long decline in the country’s fertility rate, which has been decreasing in the last 50 years. (As of September 2000, the rate had gone down to 1.33.) In order to meet this problem, Japanese society must build support systems for working women, and men have to share domestic chores. These issues are provided for in the Basic Law for Gender Equality Society. Therefore, Parliament passed this law not to expand the enjoyment of women’s human rights but to utilise the labour of women towards the revitalisation of the Japanese economy.

Meanwhile, several right-wing magazines and journals have attacked the Basic Law by warning that it could destroy the country’s family system. They also oppose feminism which they say is similar to Marxism, an ideology which was not able to survive. Those right-wing "experts" include many men and some women of various ages.

Towards a Gender Equal Society

We can foresee a slightly bright future among the younger generation. Most young women and some young men are gender sensitive. (A Men’s Liberation Group has already been organised.) Non-traditional men who want to live freely also find it difficult to survive in Japanese society. The total number of suicide victims in recent years has exceeded the total number of victims of traffic accidents in Japan. In particular, the suicide of men in their 40s has increased drastically. Some kill themselves in order to utilise the money from their life insurance for the family they left behind, and/or the company they owned. These tragic incidents are directly related to the oppressiveness of traditional sex roles in Japan.

It is important for Japanese women to change our society in close collaboration with gender sensitive men such as those in the Men’s Liberation Group. We could also start to change our society from local areas. More and more women are entering the political arena in the various localities since the late 1980s, and this is a good sign.

Hiroko Hashimoto is Professor of Women’s Studies at Jumonji University in Japan. She has published many articles on gender policy and gender mainstreaming and worked as social affairs officer at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) from 1991 to 1996. Prior to that, she was Head of Information and International Exchange Division of the National Women’s Education Centre of Japan for five years. She has been active in NGO activities for Beijing + 5 and +10 and was adviser to the Government Delegation to the Special Session on Women 2000.

Home is Where the Hurt is

by Ava Vivian Gonzales

Aside from mastery over opposable thumbs, the exchange of women in marriage sets men apart from animals as does their proclivity to inflict violence on female members of the household. What seems to be evident from historical accounts on marriage and the human family is that these institutions evolved from various property relationships. The word "family," in fact, is derived from fammulus, which referred to the total number of slaves owned by a man. Today, even with women’s inevitable rise out of property/slave status, her transformation from property into person continues to challenge the foundations of intimate heterosexual relationships, especially within marriage.

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), which came out of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, identifies violence against women as one of the 12 critical areas of concern, declaring it "an obstacle to the achievement of equality, development, and peace" which "violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms" (Sec D.112).

The BPFA recognises that "in many cases, violence against women and girls occurs in the family or within the home, where violence is often tolerated. The neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and rape of girl-children and women by family members and other members of the household, as well as incidences of spousal and non-spousal abuse, often go unreported and are thus difficult to detect. Even when such violence is reported, there is often a failure to protect victims or punish perpetrators." (Sec. D.117)

Further strategies for implementation adopted at the Beijing +5 Review in June 2000 underscore the involvement of men. A call is made to increase research and specialised studies being conducted on gender roles, in particular on men’s and boys’ roles (Sec. D. 140), along with provision of avenues for redress, appropriate punishment for the aggressors, and actions that will break the cycle of violence (Sec. 130 e).

The anticipation of steps women and women’s groups will take to fulfil these strategies is enough to lift the spirit of Thai feminist activist and academician Virada Somswasdi. "Despite the lack of official statistics on the rising horrible problem of domestic violence against women after the economic crash of 1997," she explains, "the mass media [have been informing] the public of the extreme form of violence and the close relationship between perpetrators and victims." Abusers include in-laws and true blood relatives, and they may be as young as the early teens. Some victims, on the other hand, could be little children two to three years old. One recent case was that of a paralytic grandmother in her late seventies who was raped by her great-grandson.

Virada is among the handful of individuals who maintain a "zero-tolerance" stance on violence against women versus her country’s long-standing "no-action policy" regarding domestic violence. When the 1997 Thai Constitution was being drafted, women’s and human-rights groups launched a vigorous public campaign and lobbied with the Drafting Committee, successfully pushing for a provision on equal rights, and a clause on state protection against domestic violence for children, juveniles and family members. "This gives Thai society ammunition to demand state intervention in domestic violence," Virada comments.

But while Thailand’s constitution now guarantees security from domestic violence as a citizen’s right, it is a protection that Thai women must learn to invoke, since most of them are still unwilling to press charges. "Thailand’s criminal laws and judicial system are by design exclusive of women’s specific interests and sociocultural conditions," according to Virada.

She pointed out that while the perpetrator may be found guilty and receive a prison sentence, it is his victim whose rights and safety have been severely damaged by the act of violence who has to endure the socio-economic consequences of that punishment. She is criticised for having reported the crime that led to her husband’s arrest. She has to assume the role of lone breadwinner for the family; suffer the psychological trauma of seeing a loved one in prison; and risk the chance of another episode of violence after he returns home, because the husband’s violent behaviour may not have been corrected during his time in jail.

Another factor to consider, Virada says, is Thailand’s punitive approach to the problem of male hostility at home, which at best postpones the cycle of violence. "Perpetrators of domestic violence are subjected to jail terms but not to any programmatic activities that would put an end to their violence-prone nature. In the medical and psychiatric professional fields, services for violent men are limited. Rather, available services concentrate on servicing victims of violence: they receive counselling on how to cope with the violent nature of their partners."

Such an approach to domestic violence cannot put a stop to the recurrence of violence in the home, she continues. "It is a Band-Aid approach, which emphasises the traditional view that women should take care of the wrongdoing of others."

Research findings and experience of agencies working on domestic violence indicate that the majority of Thai women would prefer not to press charges against their violent husbands or partners, and want to preserve the relationship while ending the violence.

It is against this backdrop that Virada suggests analysing "the entire culture creating the current male role and identity, or masculinity." It is her belief that doing so would make men more conscious of gender, because "it does affect their lives as well as those of women, and is a first step towards challenging gender inequalities and eliminating violence against women."

With a network of GOs, NGOs, and the academe, Virada hopes to help set up a Centre to End Domestic Violence against Women (CEDVAW) in the Muang district of Chiangmai province in Thailand. CEDVAW is envisioned to be an alternative correctional facility for first-time domestic violence offenders. It will also serve as a venue for a domestic violence intervention programme that will, among other things, propagate positive values to combat wrong societal attitudes on domestic violence.

Virada sees CEDVAW as a response to key areas for improvement in Thailand’s efforts to end domestic violence. "It will facilitate a women-centred reform in the legal and judicial system by taking into account the specific interests of victims of domestic violence and the availability of psychiatric/medical assistance to perpetrators. These are needed for change in societal attitudes as a means to uproot domestic violence," she says.

If given the chance, CEDVAW will be jointly supervised by a network composed of legal professionals from the Thailand Criminal Law Foundation, and the Thailand Criminal Law Institute under the Office of the Attorney General. It will also involve the academe, like the Women’s Studies Centre and Faculty of Social Sciences of Chiangmai University. Teeranat Kanjana-uk-sorn and the Office of the National Commission on Women’s Affairs will also be tapped, as well as the Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention Task Force.

Representatives of these organisations have already met twice to design CEDVAW’s Plan of Action. The network has proposed the Domestic Violence Correction Programme, which seeks to encourage victims to seek assistance from state personnel by creating an alternative to mandatory imprisonment for domestic aggressors. This would mean psychiatric treatment in the pre-trial process.

The Domestic Violence Correction Programme has the following step-by-step components:

A. Pre-trial Procedures:

1. Identification of users of violence in intimate settings by police officers, hospital emergency-room personnel, and community authorities.

2. Women victims will be encouraged to file charges. They will be informed of the Domestic Violence Correction Programme and receive legal counselling from legal aides trained by CEDVAW. However, in cases of severe violence, which need adjudication, victims will receive immediate legal assistance.

3. Victims and perpetrators of domestic violence will have to consent to participating in the Domestic Violence Correction Programme.

B. Procedures during trial:

1. Review of a domestic aggressor’s violent behaviour by a designated psychiatrist, and submission of a treatment plan to the office of public prosecutors for approval.

2. If desired by the victim, the public prosecutor and/or judge will prescribe a treatment plan.

3. If necessary, a treatment plan for the perpetrator will be prescribed by public prosecutors and/or the judges.

4. Offenders will receive probation sentence and undergo psychiatric treatment provided by member organisations of the Domestic Violence Network.

5. Social workers and probation officers make home visits and monitor the offender’s behaviours for a period of time as recommended by psychiatrists and the judge.

6. Reevaluation by the psychiatrists and completion of probation term.

Self-identified potential users of violence may ask for help through the emergency telephone hotline service, and participate in the correction programme at little or no expense depending on their eligibility.

To prepare for the implementation of this pilot programme, CEDVAW will carry out the following plan of action, as suggested by the network:

1. Capacity building and skills development workshops for public health officials, law enforcement personnel, and public prosecutors.

2. Production of a step-by-step manual for use by partner organisations.

3. Emergency hotline devoted to providing phone counselling and referral services to users of violence.

4. Campaign to raise public awareness of violence against women and targeting users of violence in intimate settings.

5. Documentation and monitoring of the domestic violence correction programme.

CEDVAW will push for the programme’s eventual nation-wide implementation once it yields satisfactory results provided it is given the resources to continue an advocacy that began at Beijing almost six years ago. After all, the Beijing Platform for Action is more than a description and less than a prophecy they are articles of faith towards the kind of future that women want all over the world.

With more women like Virada Somswadi, men’s violent tendencies towards their female partners may be a thing of the past perhaps even a little sooner than Thai women have hoped for.

Virada Somswadi is active in the democratic and women’s movement in Thailand. She is currently an Associate Professor of Law at Chiangmai University. She is also the Director of the Women’s Studies Center. In 2000, she launched the first M.A. programme in women’s studies in Thailand. Among those who enrolled in the programme are women from the hilltribes, police women, Lao women, women in the legal profession, women researchers and also, men.

Virada is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and was the Regional Coordinator from 1997 to 2000. She is currently the convenor of Women and Environment Task Force and member of the Program and Management Committee of APWLD and also, member of the Steering Committee of Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW).

Ava Vivian Gonzales is a freelance writer.

Transforming Filipino Men through Innovative Projects

The Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development (PPGD, 1995-2025) is a model plan for other governments in Asia and the Pacific aiming for good governance through mainstreaming gender. This is not surprising as the PPGD is known for having gone through a highly participatory and consultative process involving several government agencies and NGOs operating at regional, national and community levels.

The PPGD is the single national gender and development (GAD) blueprint that is in force until the end of the first quarter of the century.

Beyond the laws and government policies influenced by the PPGD are initiatives and efforts at the local level in reaching out and in taking up gender and development issues of both men and women. The NGO sector is not wanting to be left behind in this effort. Some of them actually took on innovative programmes and projects targeting men in ensuring gender equality.

Three such projects are presented here. First is a new project by Kauswagan Community Social Center based in Southern Philippines which involves men in the fight against violence against women (VAW). Second is by the Manila-based Population Services Pilipinas Incorporated (PSPI) which is working with grassroots men in promoting reproductive health and rights. And third is Arugaan’s counselling and documentation efforts in sharing with men the responsibility in breasfeeding children.

Breaking Down the Old Macho Image: Recreating Men

By Bruce N. Ragas

In southern Philippines, Kauswagan has been taking the lead as advocate on gender, sexuality and reproductive health issues, and particularly against Gender-Based Violence or Violence Against Women (VAW). Kauswagan Community Social Center is the community extension services of the Cebu Doctors’ College. It is a community-based health and social centre in Cebu, a province in southern Philippines. Kauswagan is committed to improving the quality of life of marginalised rural populations by providing affordable social and health services in a non-discriminatory, gender-sensitive and innovative manner. It provides training to rural health units, academic and medical institutions, and local government units to build their capacity in addressing reproductive health concerns, most especially focused on VAW.

The centre’s director, Dr. Melanio Y. Sanchez, Jr., M.D., M.P.H. noticed, however, that from the start Kauswagan’s work seemed to have been an exclusive concern of women. After a time he began to ask himself, "Where are the men in this serious discussion? Are they really the source of all these problems that have to do with gender, with sexuality and reproductive health? What if they are also victims, forced just like the women to behave in certain ways?"

His first insight was that men tend to be violent mainly because that is the way society requires men to behave. This is how they are expected to enforce the idea that men are superior and women are inferior.

"Masculinity is not in our genes, it is in our imagination." That is how Michael Kaufman, organiser of the famous men’s group called White Ribbon Campaign, put it in his book Cracking the Armour. Society tells our boys: "To be a man you have to wear the armour of being tough, aggressive, uncompromising, strong, assertive, unyielding, rough, etc. Outside of that armour your masculinity would be questioned." A man who doesn’t display these traits is despised and ostracised.

Therefore, women’s liberation from gender oppression and exploitation must involve as well the liberation of men, imprisoned as they are in their own gender role. Both women and men have to free themselves, so that the benefits of their struggles may be mutually enjoyed and enhanced.

Dr. Sanchez started to introduce this idea at conferences, meetings and discussions on the issue of violence against women.

It is not enough to simply punish the perpetrators of violence against women, he argued. "Putting them behind bars will not prevent the same thing from happening again." The offender may have believed that his actions were merely "part of being a man."

Don’t you think, Dr. Sanchez asked, that these men also need help to change the way they look at themselves, the way they look at women, at society and their role in the world in general? "We have to make a better world where everyone, women and men alike, would regard each other as equal partners." Thus, he advocated counselling for offenders and orientation seminars that would reach out to men, let them see the issue as a whole, and solicit their suggestions on how to bring about the desired changes.

At first, his views were not too well received. Doubts and questions were raised, essentially asking why men had to be involved when they themselves are the perpetrators of violence.

In 1997, however, Dr. Sanchez decided to call a consultative meeting of men to discuss what they could do to help diminish the problem of violence against women. He invited well-known lawyers, academics, police and military officials, mass media practitioners, physicians and religious, among others. The response was very positive. Despite the difficulty of finding a common time, a series of initial meetings was held and plans were made.

For a start, the group conducted an orientation seminar amongst its members on the issue of violence against women. We noted that most of those who attended had almost negligible knowledge of the issue. This has definitely changed after they attended the seminar moreso, after the media began to write articles on VAW and discussed it over the radio.

Though the group has not yet formally and legally organised, its viability has been demonstrated. Members get in touch with each other even in connection with issues other than reproductive health. Since Kauswagan has not yet accessed any funds to support the initiative, for the present it can only play a limited role. In the future, though, we are looking forward to the formal establishment of a group who will call themselves Men Opposed to Violence Against Women (MOVAW).

Kauswagan recently received a grant from the Southeast Asian Gender Equity Programme (SEAGEP) to conduct a Southeast Asian Conference on Men’s Role in Violence Against Women. We hope to be able to announce the conference details as soon as we have finalised these so that all interested individuals and organisations may participate.

The major aim of the conference is to support the emerging movement of community groups involving men in advocacy and campaigns on violence against women. The conference would explore and document current initiatives in this area and suggest strategies for greater engagement and partnership between men and women to address and/or eliminate violence against women. The participants are expected to commit to guidelines or a framework of actions that they can pursue, and which would be helpful for the formation of new men’s groups.

Furthermore, through this conference it is hoped that men’s involvement in the cause of eliminating violence would increase and that their presence through organisations or associations would be felt not just in the Philippines but in the whole Southeast Asian region as well. We hope that in the near future we will see more and more men involving themselves in fighting violence against women.

Bruce N. Ragas works as a research assistant/documentor for Kauswagan Community Social Center. Kauswagan has several projects and programmes including a collaboration with the Reproductive Health project that was supported by the Ford Foundation. Kauswagan, with the assistance of MOVAW, organised the recently concluded "Southeast Asia Regional Workshop: Men and Gender Violence" that took place on 16-20 April 2001 in Lapu-Lapu City, the southern part of the Philippines.

The full text of this article can be found in the print edition of Women in Action