Reconstructing masculinities (2)

One insightful finding in this report is that “masculinities are complex and have shifted, but unequal gender norms and structural inequalities persist and prevent more widespread transformation of gender norms after conflict …Physical strength and violence are no longer widely perceived as dominant forms of masculinity. Instead, post-conflict masculinities are centered around being the decision-maker, breadwinner, and protector of the family … but gender roles ascribing women as caretakers and homemakers endure …”

To recall, the study used a one-shot survey of more than 6,000 individuals in three locations: Aceh and Maluku in Indonesia and two provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The results of the survey were also compared with the thick descriptive analysis done by each research team from the qualitative data they gathered via key informant interviews and community-based focus group discussions in selected areas in the three research locales.

As someone who has been involved in various gender and development advocacies for most of my five-decade professional career as an academic, journalist, and social development worker, I have observed how concepts of being a woman (femininities) and as a man (masculinities) have evolved over the years in a region popularly perceived as “conservative and traditional” like the Bangsamoro. This study confirms that observation. However, what I did not have in terms of proving my observations are done in this study, and more. For one, the study also looked into what drives the changes in perceptions and actions among men on their concepts of what it means to be a man in their families.

Interestingly, they were able to correlate the factors that can help men transform their traditional gender-unequal views to more egalitarian social relations with the female members of their families. One factor is continuous education supported by several initiatives during transition periods that have “enhanced women’s socioeconomic opportunities and improved men’s awareness of the harmful effects of some expectations of being a man.” Among these initiatives are the conduct of different gender sensitivity trainings, and exposure to several projects that allow for the active collaboration of men in women’s projects among the study’s three post-conflict contexts. When men have access to more stable livelihoods that allow them to increase their incomes and “increase their socioeconomic status,” they tend to “hold more gender-equal views” compared to those who do not have the same privileges or opportunities.

Still, it remains to be seen whether such “gender-equal views” can be translated to the granting of more opportunities for women to take an active part in local and regional politics or to hold more key political positions in the two levels of governance, especially in the Bangsamoro. For quite some time, women politicians come from political clans and are usually drafted as candidates for local government positions when their husbands or fathers have ended their first term of office (nine years). Women officials become like “intermission numbers” in a musical program, providing some “breather” from the rule of the male members of their families.

Such “gender-equal views” should evolve into less misogyny and sexism of our local, regional, and even national male officials. It should also lead to the full implementation of the Safe Spaces Act (for all genders, including the non-binaries) and the anti-child and forced marriage law that puts the best interests of girl children, especially their health, well-being, and overall welfare.

The forthcoming 2025 regional parliamentary elections in the BARMM will be a litmus test for this observation—if there are more women to be elected in the parliament, and if they will also be given the leadership of significant committees that can showcase women’s high-level capacities in decision making and leadership roles.

One way of “reconstructing masculinities” is exploring more socioeconomic opportunities for men that will allow them to appreciate the full range of benefits in improving day-to-day social-gender relations. Such opportunities require that men deconstruct traditional, stereotypical, and many times patriarchal concepts of what it means to be a man and a woman in society. Changing mindsets that have been ingrained among both men and women for centuries is a massive hurdle. But it can be done if the process of reeducating communities starts among very young children, at home, before they are sent to formal schooling.

Indeed, the household or the home is “often an overlooked” site for promoting gender-equal views, and eventually, a more gender-fair society.