Week 3: Relation between positive masculinities and ending gender based violence

Gender Equality - Positive Masculinities
#21

Hello guys.
I would like to share my opinions about the topic, as following.

GBV is any type of violence excessively perpetrated against a particular person or groups of people because of their gender.

Gender-based violence (GBV) undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. Victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and even death.

During the last few decades, gender-based violence (GBV) has gained international
recognition as a grave social and human rights concern. In Tanzania, GBV is widespread. In the 2010 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey shows over 20% of Tanzanian women aged 15-49 years reported having
experienced sexual violence in their lifetime and nearly 40% reported having experienced
physical violence.
The same survey showed that 44% of ever-married women had
experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Somehow there is a growing awareness of GBV and increased efforts at a policy
level to address the issue, for some few people who’re aware of it, as the statistics shows mostly women’s are more affected than men, it’s our task to educate the others so as to avoid it.

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#22

Q1…Gender-based violence (GBV) in Zambia takes the form of physical, mental, social or economic abuse against a person because of that person’s gender and includes violence that may result in physical, sexual or psychological harm and suffering to the victim. It may also include threats or coercion, or the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life.

Women in Zambia experience a variety of forms of violence including battery, sexual abuse and exploitation, rape, defilement (rape of a child) and incest.

Similarly, the 2017 Gender Based Violence third-quarter report indicates that the total number of GBV cases in just one quarter countrywide was 16,090, compared to 13,092 cases in 2016 during the same period—a 18.6% increase.

Esther Katongo, the public relations officer for the Zambia police, said when releasing the report that there had been an increase in physical GBV cases such as those involving assault and murder

Q2…
Can we have men and boys to understand and say that "because I am a man, I should be gentle to my wife and children? Yes, imagine every man accepts that all men are strong than women, but as a result, you should not use that advantage to harm the weaker women?
Changes have to be made to involve men and boys in stopping patriarchal norms.

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#23

Hello everyone

Today is the last day of Week 3, if you have not contributed yet, please make sure you do.

I am looking at a few responses especially on the question of how positive masculinities can be a solution to ending gender based violence. The following responses show that men really need to step up and embrace positive masculinities.

I also want to share a project called “Men as Partners” that was conducted by Sonke Gender Justice in South Africa.

Through the Men as Partners network, Sonke aims to involve men in communities in preventing gender violence and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support.

Why work with men?

Sonke Gender Justice believes that working with men is a critical strategy for achieving gender equality. Over the last 10 years there has been growing international consensus on the need to further include boys and men in promoting gender equality. This includes recognition by UNAIDS that the behaviour of men and boys puts themselves and their partners at risk of HIV infection.

Sonke Gender Justice’s Men as Partners Initiative aims to:

  • Decrease levels of violence against women and children
  • Involve men in the lives of their partners, children, families and communities.
  • Get men to us HIV services, such as condoms, circumcision, VCT, ART, and support groups.
  • Increase men’s involvement in treatment advocacy and home based care activities.
  • Increase men’s support and advocacy for PMTCT programmes and PEP.
  • Reduce alcohol abuse and alcohol related violence and HIV risk.
  • Increase public sector and civil society roll out of effective male involvement initiatives.

Project Activities

The work that Sonke Gender Justice is involved in includes:

  • Intensive training and ongoing technical assistance to carefully selected partner organisations to build government and civil society capacity to implement male involvement projects.
  • Support for men to take action in communities to prevent violence against women and to promote greater male involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support.
  • Bringing together key stakeholders to identify and develop strategies for increasing men’s use of HIV services.
  • Training communities groups to use the media to develop messages that encourage men to pursue health seeking behaviours and challenge the attitudes and values contributing to gender based violence.
    https://genderjustice.org.za/project/project-archive/men-as-partners/

You can also check out the MenEngage Africa project https://genderjustice.org.za/project/regional-programmes-networks/menengage-africa/

#24

Hello my good people as we come to an end of this week 3 discusion this is my submission

GBV is any type of violence excessively perpetrated against a particular person or groups of people because of their gender.

Gender-based violence (GBV) undermines the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded in a culture of silence. Victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and even death.

During the last few decades, gender-based violence (GBV) has gained international
recognition as a grave social and human rights concern. In Zambia GBV is widespread. Demographic and Health Survey shows over 20% of Zambian women aged 15-49 years reported having
experienced sexual violence in their lifetime and nearly 75% reported having experienced
physical violence.
The same survey showed that 54% of ever-married women had
experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Somehow there is a growing awareness of GBV and increased efforts at a policy
level to address the issue, for some few people who’re aware of it, as the statistics shows mostly women’s are more affected than men, it’s our task to educate the others so as to avoid it.

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#25

Now is the right time for mens to make sure they give women the opportunity to grow economically and politically.

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#26

Week 3 Submission:

Most of us have defined GBV; so I’ll go straight to suggest some solutions to this social problem:

1. Anger Management

  • I strongly believe failure to manage ones anger in a relationship is the root cause of GBV.

  • To me, GBV is, simply put, a consequence of failing to handle anger during a conflict.

  • Thus, both men and women, especially married couples, need to be taught how to master anger management techniques such as time-out or pause.

2. Dialogue

  • Couples need to talk things over, and not beat each other to the grave.

  • Parents should teach children how to use dialogue to resolve disputes from a tender age. This way, the youngsters will master the art of dialogue and take it into their homes.

  • Then and only then, will we see an increase in dialoguing adults and a reduction in GBV cases in Africa and beyond.

3. Couple Counseling

  • Some couples simply can’t dialogue; they simply can’t stand each other.

  • These might need external help or mediation in form of counselling.

  • Counseling should be encouraged in our African society to help prevent issues from escalating into GBV cases.

  • The counselor will act as a mediator for the couple in conflict.

  • I’m so focused on married couples because GBV cases ( in Zambia at least) are more prevalent among them.

3. Breaking Silence

  • Both male and female GBV victims should first report the cases to relevant authorities to help matters.

  • They should as well not shun the media, but become stop GBV ambassadors in society.

  • Also, people should freely and openly discuss GBV issues in the mass media to create a GBV free society for all.

4. Stop GBV Campaign

  • Governments, NGOs, churches and the media should start (or continue) GBV campaigns to create awareness and, ultimately, end the vice.

  • The campaigns should be implemented in local languages to reach a lot of people in the target group.

5. Positive Masculinity

  • Finally, positive masculinity is closely linked to ending GBV in so many ways. A man who respects women could never perpetrate GBV. He understands that a woman feels pain just like him. A man who treats women as equal partners in development would never do anything to harm them. He understands that GBV is retrogressive and for cowards. A real man who is 💯 human would never beat a woman because he knows all human beings enjoy equal human rights. No one should infringe on another’s rights by inflicting pain.

I submit 😊!

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#27

Hello everyone

I am sharing a contribution from one of our resource people who participates on WhatsApp, SK Mabulu:

"Dear all, I’ve read the comments on gender equality especially from colleagues who spoke yesterday and early today. I’ve worked in this journey of gender equality for at least 15 years now. My clan name is Tshawe, Tshawe clan is very respected in South Africa since it is one of the royal families. In other words I’m expected to promote culture and traditions as to keep the standard of the family. When I joined the gender equality space, my mindset shifted a bit. I began to enjoy the benefits of gender equality. e.g. drive with my wife wherever and enjoy, buy something for my wife even if it’s chocolate and any thing that shows love, kiss my wife before I go to work, chat positively with her, we both prepare ourselves before sexual intercourse, understand that oral sex is important to her than to always think of just penetration, cook together, talk when I have a concern etc. As a traditional person, I’ve been told - not to spend more time with women because I will be weak, not to perform house keeping work, that men should have multiple partners, that I am the head of the house, that men don’t cry etc. I refused to follow things that make life difficult for myself.

I believe that gender equality has a lot of benefits to us men and most men know that but they afraid of betraying their culture. Culture is dynamic, meaning it changes. We can’t allow people living with fear. I can’t believe that someone will enjoy torture rather than saying this had became a norm. It’s like when you are in prison and you have no way to go because everyone believes what they believe. You then decide to associate yourself with others to protect yourself in the situation.

It is not easy to shift the mindset or making others believe but it is something we need to do. We need to transform ourselves as ambassadors first because we are also trapped on these challenges. If we don’t do well, we make the situation even worse because we are the role models of people we know and people we don’t know. To bring peace in this world gender equality is one of the answers, Aluta Continua!"

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#28

As we close off this week’s topics, I would like to share what came out of the francophone discussion this week:

ON UNDERSTANDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

  • gender-based violence translates this attitude of the man of taking advantage of his physical strength to destroy the woman physically, psychologically, etc. ;

  • gender-based violence is the sign of the weakness of women and men who are the instigators because the one who is weak in character hides behind verbal and physical violence;

  • gender-based violence is act that cause harm against a person’s will and that result from distinctions between men and women, adults and children, young and old;

  • it is any form of violation of the rights of women on the basis of their status as women. It is any prejudice or degrading treatment inflicted on a woman because she is a woman;

  • gender-based violence is any form of violence (including discrimination) suffered by women because they are women, because they are considered weak by nature. This violence does not only come from men. Sometimes it also comes from other women, who for example, having a strong or wealthy husband, believe that other women are indebted to them;

  • GBV, sometimes called gender-based violence, refers to all harmful acts directed against an individual or a group of individuals because of their gender identity. It is rooted in gender inequality, abuse of power and harmful norms;

  • gender-based violence is any act that is likely to cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats through acts such as coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life. Gender-based violence (GBV) should be understood in the context of the subordinate status of women and girls and the norms, social structures and gender roles that influence women’s vulnerability to violence;

  • gender-based violence is the possibility that the man gives himself to show his superiority to the woman in an excessive way and that by trampling on the rights which are incumbent on the woman;

  • it is today a discrimination, a consideration of the other, his/her capacity, his/her know-how, his/her competence all this taken as he/she is a man or a woman. And in our ‘Nawda’ community in northern Togo, gender-based violence is both physical and psychological;

  • it reflects a situation in which the man always shows himself superior to the woman, especially in the marital home with decision-making in which the woman does not have the right to speak. In many cases, if the woman responds immediately, she will suffer physical abuse, among other things, beatings, various attacks, but also the deprivation of all liberty.

  • It is an umbrella term for any harmful act committed against a person’s will and based on societal (gender) differences. The term GBV highlights the gender dimension of these types of acts; in other words, the link between women’s subordinate status in society and their increased vulnerability. Men and boys can also be victims of GBV, particularly sexual violence.

  • gender-based violence is violence directed against men and women because of their sex and which has its origins in unequal power relations between men and women. The victims of gender-based violence can be women, men or children. To speak of violence against women and girls, it is directed in a specific way towards women and girls and in a disproportionate way. They include physical, sexual and psychological practices and harms, including intimidation, suffering, deprivation of liberty within the family or the community at large;

  • it concerns both rich and poor, urban and rural, men and women, believers and non-believers, girls and boys;

  • it is the set of discriminatory acts exercised on men as well as on women or a group of people. It is exerted especially on women through physical, verbal, financial or economic violence, (refusal to work) psychological… All this violence affects the development of women and prevents them from fully enjoying their right ;

  • it is perceived as a set of prejudices and physical, psychological and economic violation made on the basis of the gender in which the victim belongs, and in most cases it is the female gender that is victim against the male gender because the latter is in possession of strength;

  • Gender is a social construct that involves both sexes and often it is women and girls and people living with disabilities who most often experience this violence;

  • Gender-based violence takes many forms. It can be psychological, economic or physical. In every community, there are practices that undermine the development of either man or woman;

  • Gender-based violence is the negative, harmful acts and behaviors against a person or a group of people. Generally in our communities dominated by socio-cultural burdens, these acts are influenced by inequality and societal norms;

  • Gender-based violence is not always visible but it always hurts.

ON THE ROLE OF POSITIVE MASCULINITIES AS A SOLUTION TO ENDING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

  • positive masculinity is a solution because if all men understand that men and women are equal, have the same rights, and that it is sex that differentiates them, gender-based violence will disappear from our world;

  • positive masculinities can lead society to build stronger families and can contribute positively to the relationships between men and women and above all they will lead them to learn better from each other;

  • positive masculinities can reduce violence against women, build families, communities and create beautiful relationships between men and women;

  • positive masculinities allow the awareness of men who put themselves in the line of battle for the cause of the woman and allows her to access the deserved position on the same basis as the man;

  • positive masculinity is the best solution to recognize the values ​​of women and to accept them. No gender difference;

  • positive masculinity is the very remedy against gender-based violence, it is only a question of men becoming aware that women are first and foremost a being, with the same assets and human faculties as men (in the masculine). Then admit that women have more assets, which, if we capitalize on them in harmony, we win. But this education must begin at an early age by involving women and men in it;

  • positive masculinities appear and remain today as the antidote to gender-based violence. In the sense that positive masculinities will allow within our community to dispel stereotypes and religious and cultural beliefs anchored within these communities by pure erroneous consideration. Through positive masculinity, each man/woman, boy/girl will be valued. An action that will allow everyone to assert their abilities and participate in the development of their community;

  • men reproduce forms of violence that go against their own integrity and that of those around them. If men are the primary aggressors of women and other men, work with them to find solutions;

  • For me, it takes concrete actions and that’s where positive masculinity comes in. We need role models or champions or leaders who must take the lead in communities so that others follow in their footsteps;

  • if there are role models in a setting, it’s a good start to gradually get people to end GBV;

  • positive masculinity is a solution to gender-based violence as it will end stereotypes and all discriminatory actions against women;

  • it is clear that positive masculinity teaches the man to adopt certain behaviors vis-Ă -vis the woman but even more to consider the latter as someone with whom he collaborates, exchanges and discusses so that everyone is fulfilled and can fully unleash its potential. Starting from this premise, we understand that by being our collaborator, our support and sometimes our guide, certain measures must be taken so that she can freely express her way of seeing things. So it’s clear here that positive masculinity is one of those ways;

  • In my opinion, positive masculinities will end gender-based violence when it is men who are the causal agents of this gender-based violence. Men with positive masculinity are those who are able to remove this barrier that creates belief in female gender stereotypes but also respect women’s rights;

  • we can hope that if however we manage to promote positive masculinity and identify role models to be examples in our communities, in our societies, the issues of gender-based violence will be resolved;

  • positive masculinity passes through this new perception that one can have of women and this ability to understand that they have assets to help propel development actions in their community;

  • in the face of gender-based violence, positive masculinity can respond to certain challenges through this awareness of human worth and dignity. Referring to the principle that all men are born equal and with equal rights. Right to life, to health, to education, to work. This principle contains in itself the essence of the fight against gender-based violence;

  • The main actors of violence against women and girls are men therefore we must work with these men and boys to even prevent violence. Also they must be informed and sensitized so that they can be potential allies influencing the fight against violence against women and girls;

  • positive masculinities can help end gender-based violence as our communities are made up of both men and women. Most of the perpetrators of this violence are men, so if we have men exercising positive masculinities, it will influence the behaviors of society and we will have advocates for changing mindsets and behaviors;

  • considering the patriarchal aspect of our societies in which men hold power, a certain positive masculinity on their part could be a good start in combating all forms of gender-based violence, whether sexual, physical, psychological, institutional or economic. This is a process that can take time, enough time. Five, ten years, a century or more. The essential thing is to stay the course towards the objective of transforming community knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to the question of gender.

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#29

What is your understanding of gender based violence?

Gender based violence (GBV) is any harmful act directed to a person as a result of his gender. This violence is against the persons will and it is generally based on traditional or gender norms. Both men and women suffer from GBV but women are more vulnerable. GBV can be physical, psychological and verbal violence.

How can positive masculinities be a solution to ending gender based violence?

Positive masculinity can help greatly in ending GBV. Because these men will act as champions to other men to stop violence against women in communities. For instance, we now have male champions in promoting gender equality and this is helping greatly to transform negative gender norms

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#30

What is gender based violence?
It is an act violence being inflicted on both women and men, boys and girls in their respective families or communities which include physical, verbal among others.
How can positive masculinities be a solution to end gender based violence?
Men have the crucial role to play especially in their respective families and communities or at any level of decision making position in speaking against the violence on both women and men, boys and girls.
Men should use their power to create equal opportunities for women to take up high decision making positions not with the mind of challenging men but having the same level of understanding issues affecting them such as reducing GBV that are rampant.
In a home setup parents should ensure that children are considered the same weather boy or girl by sharing house chores such as washing, cleaning the kitchen, among other chores.
The other thing is that women and men should understand the traditional beliefs without affecting the other partner for instance in our area Petauke district eastern part of Zambia a woman has no right to complain that I don’t want sex the end result will be the husband beating the wife and elderly people will say divorce your wife without understanding the root cause of the problem.

#31

thanks every body,gender based violence as my understanding violence that occur especially in women by their being naturally female.
societies attitude that giving higher,better,places to men rather than women
men are stronger,can perform everything,but not women.
We can overcome,resolve gender based violence by creating positive masculinity,by creating societal attitudes,in religion,in different social aspects.
Generally,awareness creation in local language medias,and in different occasions may end gender based violence.

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#32

My understanding about Gender based Violence is violation of one because of their gender. Men and women are denied of their write due to to their inability to do something because of their gender. Men take advantage of women just because they have physical strength and men also are denied of their rights simply because they are at a disadvantaged position by the other sex.
On masculinity men should come to a point where they put their pride as men aside and agree that they share equal opportunities and right as women. They should agree that women are also able to do things that men do despite being a woman. And if this is done or practiced it will ease up pressure on men because they will share responsibilities with the opposite sex.

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#33

Men and Boys should also be engaged in anti gender violence groups so as to curb the vice

#34

Hey Eraston,

You are right, the important issue is to end GBV - which means no one should be treated badly.

However, GBV is the effect/result. You can deal with it, but it will surface its ugly head again, and again, and again. That is why it might be more effective to deal with the causes of GBV. Normally, it is more attractive to deal with effects because that is what people see, that is what draws the emotions, and of course, it gives relief, be it temporary. Coming up with long-lasting solutions is not easy. One reason is that the causes are ‘hidden’ and they are ‘suspects’. They are not attractive to tackle because the impact of the efforts appears after a longer period.

So, I would suggest that strategically, we must have a two-pronged approach towards dealing with GBV. One to tackle the effects of GBV, and another, its causes. More efforts should be towards the causes. Otherwise, it will be a futile exercise.

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#35

1:Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality, and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of their gender. Both women and men experience gender-based violence but the majority of victims are women and girls and this is because women are looked at as weak people and mostly many women depend on men financially.
2:Abandoning hegemonic masculinities and promoting positive masculinities are both strategies used by interventions that foreground a “gender-transformative approach.” Preventing GBV among young people could be strengthened by engaging young men.
if all men can stand strong and support woemen without segregation because of their gender then we would have a GBV free nation.

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#36

I agree with you this issue seriously need to be looked into