Engaging Young Men as Allies in Ending Violence and Promoting New Ideas about Manhood

John Crownover

CARE International NW Balkans International Conference on Gender Base Violence Reykjavik, Iceland – October 24 th , 2010

YMI is focused on addressing social norms with adolescent boys around masculinity and its effects on gender norms and violence.

Background

•Legacy of Conflict and War in the former Yugoslavia – 1991 – 2001 •Gender base violence as a tool of war •Strengthening of patriarchal and traditional social norms •Nationalism and political violence •Rigid constructions of what it means to be a man

Why work with young men

• • • • • Young men are both victims and perpetrators of violence; Young men have certain health vulnerabilities and risks that impact their development; Confront stereotypes about young men; Promoting gender equity and gender equitable relationships has benefits for both young men and women; Gain a better understanding of masculinity (ies) and its impact on young men

Partnerships

 CARE supports and build capacity of local actors  YMI involved 5 youth work oriented organisations, Women’s rights training NGO, local researchers and one lifestyle and social marketing organisation  Lack of youth services and centers (poor youth infrastructure) drove intervention to be school based partnership (10 schools involved – 5 intervention and 5 control)  Ministry for Education and Ministry for Youth and Sport

Approach

 YMI uses a gender and developmental perspective which seeks to combine the lens of gender and developmental psychology to better understand genderd behavior in adolescents over their life cycle.

Participatory Learning in Action (PLA)

•There is little available research that explores what it means to be a young man in the Balkans, particularly with regards to gender-related norms and attitudes about violence. Much of the project's understanding of these issues is drawn from a (PLA) exercise conducted with young men in April 2007, as well as from the experience and insights of project team members in four countries.

PLA – Exploring Dimensions of Masculinity and Violence  A few key PLA insights from young men in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia provided important background for YMI's interventions and evaluation 

Young men identified some of the characteristics of “ideal” men, including: physical strength, protection of honor, defending strong opinions, strong character, being successful in everything, participation in masculine activities (sports and drinking), sexual virility, lack of cowardice (i.e., not acting like a woman, in their words), being heterosexual.

PLA – Exploring Dimensions of Masculinity and Violence 

Young men identified home and school as the two strongest social spaces influencing masculinity across the Balkans. Within these spaces, young men are strongly influenced by parents, siblings and peers groups. Peers are particularly important in shaping a young man’s sense of the social “dos and don’ts” of being a man.



Young men listed and categorized types of violence into physical, psychological (emotional) and sexual violence. Violence among peers seemed to be the most pervasive, with most violence of this nature occurring at school, in the street, or in other public places. Many young men expect their peers to join in fights to maintain allegiance to the individual or group. Violence against sexual minorities, especially gay men, was widely mentioned with general feelings that the victims deserved the violence.

Capacity Building and Youth Work

• A staff development training program developed for the youth workers from partners organisation; •Many staff, both women and men had traditional views around gender and masculinity…process of self reflection took time

Regional Young Men Forum

• A regional forum of 20 young men, mainly those who were involved in the PLA and wanted to continue to be active was developed; •Training and personal development supported; •Became important peer catalysts and voluntary workers in the youth organisations;

Lifestyle Campaign and Educational Programme Development  Regional young men forum (secondary school students) played important role  Different professional working with the youth to construct campaign  Adapted an educational program from Brazil in working with young men and field tested (program muski )

Budi Musko – Be a Man

 A lifestyle school based campaign developed  Campaigned focused on social norms around masculinity as it related to violence, health lifestyles and gender norms  Enlisted positive celebrities to help with kick off

Baseline and Endline

• Program focused on 9 technical schools with a predominant male student population (randomly selected intervention and control); •The evaluation uses a self-administered survey with young men aged 15-19 enrolled (as of February 2009) in Grades 1 and 2 at the nine schools.

The intervention straddled two academic years, and continued to engage with this same group of young men as they move into Grades 2 and 3 in September 2009. Data collection occurs at two points – baseline (February-March 2009) and post-intervention, or endline (May - June 2010) with a cross section of young men from the same grades (with approximately equal number of young men selected from each of the two grades) at the same schools.

Baseline Highlights

Violent behaviors in the past 3 months

Been part of a violent act as part of a group of young men or gang Participated in verbal abuse or threats towards someone you though was gay or overly feminine Participated in hitting or beating someone you thought was gay or overly feminine Pushed another young man or boy Kicked or punched another young man or boy Humiliated another young man or boy 13% 21% 28% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 54% 51% 50% 53% 60%

Gender Norms – Gender Equitable Men Scale (GEM) Gender Equitable Men Scale Score (1= most Gender Equitable, 0 = least gender equitable) Agreed with the statement:

It is the man who decides when and how to have sex Men need sex more than women do A man needs other women, even if things with his wife are fine There are times when a woman deserves to be slapped.

A woman should tolerate violence in order to keep her family together.

It is okay for a man to hit his wife if she will not (does not want to) have sex with him.

Changing diapers, giving kids a bath, and feeding the kids are the mother ’ s responsibility.

A woman ’ s most important role is to take care of her home and cook for her family.

If someone insults me, I will defend my honor, even if it means using violence.

I would never have a gay friend.

It disgusts me when I see a man acting like a woman

0.54

%

72% 76% 46% 46% 25% 10% 76% 71% 85% 79% 93%

School based interventions

•Workshops organised on a voluntary basis covering topics like sexual health, conflict, gender, honor, emotional health (a series of 20 workshops done over a period of 10 sessions) •Workshops done both within school and in spaces of youth organisations •Campaign workshops open to all students (male and female) included visual arts (comic strips, video , music) •School events organised on different themes

Conclusions

 Challenging social norms around gender and violence is vital;  Providing a space for young men to explore issues manhood;  Young males valued the opportunity to confront stereotypes about themselves and to be allies with girls and women on promoting human rights issues;

MENENGAGE ALLIANCE

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MenEngage Alliance

as a global network to promote exchange, dialogue, field-building, collective advocacy to promote non-violent, gender-equitable manhood Specific projects on

Conflict Settings Men, Masculinities and Sexual Exploitation; Men and GBV Prevention in Post-

Working in partnership with Women Rights and Feminist Movements

Joint advocacy Information sharing, building leadership and skills