BackStudy highlights role of family, education, economic status in men’s behaviour
Men who experience economic stress were more likely to have perpetrated violence, finds study
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New Delhi: Men who are economically better-off, educated and have grown up in families where both parents made decisions jointly are less likely to be violent or have a preference for sons, a study released on Monday said.
“Education and economic status may provide men more positive exposure, and there may be less pressure to conform to societal expectations and behave in a certain way," said the study, titled Masculinity, Intimate Partner Violence and Son Preference in India, and released by the United Nations Population Fund and the International Center for Research on Women.
“Men’s observation of less gender-stratified roles in a household in their childhood has a direct bearing on the creation of positive masculinity for men," the study states.
The study also stresses on how witnessing or experiencing discrimination or harassment as a child shapes a man’s outlook. “Men who did not witness discrimination or harassment during their childhood were nearly three times more likely than the others to be equitable and less controlling," it states.
“The study points to how we need to address the childhood experiences. We need to change the upbringing and at the same time, create environments where lived experiences are more equitable," says Ravi Verma, regional director of the Asia Regional Office at ICRW.
The study sampled 1,500 men and 500 women each from across seven states—Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra—four of these have sex ratios lower than the national average.
The study is released at a time when the approach to attain gender equality is changing in terms of identifying the role of men as the part of the solution rather than being a problem. Research and advocacy groups have started highlighting the importance of engaging men in the process. Since the mid-1990s, several studies have shown an association between inequitable gender attitudes among men and their likelihood of violence towards a partner. The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo had encouraged engaging men to improve reproductive and sexual health outcomes for women.
India ranked a poor 114 out of 142 countries in removing gender-based disparities in the field of education, health and equal pay for equal work, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Gender Gap Index released recently.
According to the latest study, irrespective of their age, men who experience economic stress were more likely to have perpetrated violence ever or in the past 12 months. “Economic stress can threaten men’s belief in their own abilities and may lead them to be more controlling of and violent towards their partners," it states. “Men who were under no economic stress were 1.5 times more likely to be have equitable attitudes and behaviours than those who were either underemployed or unemployed."
Reinforcing what the National Family Health Survey in 2005-06 stated, this study points out how 52% of women surveyed reported that they have experienced some form of violence during their lifetime while 60% of men said they had acted violently against their wife or partner at some point in their lives.
Among the states surveyed, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest levels of reported violence by men against women. Three-fourth (75%) of men in Odisha and Uttar Pradesh reported perpetrating any form of violence while 84% of women in Odisha and 63% in Uttar Pradesh reported experiencing some form of violence. Reported experience of any form of violence by women is lowest in Madhya Pradesh (34%), followed by Maharashtra (37%).
Among the states, 54% of men from Uttar Pradesh expressed rigid masculinity, defined in part by controlling behaviour and highly negative gender attitudes. This was followed by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Odisha. “The gender norms that drive this intimate partner violence include those around masculinity, where ‘being a real man’ is characterized by authority, and being a woman, or femininity, by acceptance and tolerance," the study said.
Over one-third of men and women sampled showed a high preference for sons and discrimination against daughters. Interestingly, more women (81%) than men (76%) felt it was very important to have a son. Among states, Uttar Pradesh had the largest proportion of men and women that had strong son-preferring attitudes.
The study also shows how more than three-fourths of the men sampled expected their partners to agree if they wanted to have sex and more than half the men didn’t expect their partners to use contraceptives without their permission. One-fifth of men believed that it’s a woman’s responsibility to avoid getting pregnant, a statement with which 31% of women agreed.
Among other recommendations, the study suggests the need for revising education curricula, materials and textbooks to eliminate gender stereotypes and also incorporate knowledge on larger societal issues, including relevant laws protecting the rights of women and girls.
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