The role of men and boys in gender equality

A young East African University friend of mine, who in response to my suggestion that he ought to be more gender sensitive, just boasted: “I was born and raised to be an African 'man' so I will remain as such, why change a cultural habit of a lifetime?” I was stunned. His response was a clear indication that a significant number of men, boys and even women of African descent still think gender is a female preserve that they have little to do with. This can be partly attributed to the forces of masculinity, a socially force-fed emotional and physical masquerade which often thrives due to 'cultural' and 'biological' influences that make it necessary for men to assume certain roles but not others.

At the 48th session of the Commission for the Status of Women in New York a key topic of discussion was indeed the role of men and boys in gender equality. Despite this, the tireless efforts of inter-governmental initiatives to adopt UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security as far back as October 2000 have only just begun to emerge in practice. So how effective can an initiative to bring men and boys aboard the gender agenda be at translating complex policy into practice? And why is the role of men and boys in gender equality so crucial to peace and security?

Even at the cusp of a new millennium it is mostly men who wield political power at the national, regional and international policy-making level. This is certainly the case within post-conflict nations such as Eritrea where a considerable female frontline combatant and civilian population is now disproportionately represented within government. This hinders women's ability to engage in situations of ensuing, fully fledged and easing conflict.

The United Nations system itself epitomizes a male-dominated structure where men still occupy many high-level posts. So it becomes imperative to train and to gender -sensitize divisions such as the Department for Peacekeeping Operations on issues relating to peace and security before they embark on field missions.

There are still men and women within African civil society who remain oblivious to the existence of policies on gender, peace and security, which could change gender relations between and among men and women. Aside from this, putting early socialization and education at the grassroots level into practice could make a poignant impact, enabling men and boys to engender peace and security and not to threaten it. It is solely by doing this that African civil society can begin to deconstruct the flawed inter-cultural link between wars and masculinities.

Some questions still remain. How much of an effect has and will such practices have at the grassroots level and is there a sufficient amount of advocacy, training and capacity -building available to facilitate the inclusion of men and boys in this process?

Nowhere is such a question more appropriate than in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some of Africa's most horrific scenes of post-conflict gender based violence have occurred. People now refer to the persistence of such violence particularly in Bukavu and South Kivu, as the 'war within a war'. What is devastating is that that judicial, government and civilian attitudes within these areas are still locked in a belief that such grotesque acts of inhumanity form a part of traditional male practice. The ramifications are often detrimental to society and the economy, causing a dearth in income, forced migration, community level trauma, mistrust and a collapse in rural and urban kinship structures.

Although local NGO's have the capacity to identify and to overcome the impact of gender based violence on women, there doesn't appear to be a great deal done to sensitize male perpetrators, the military and judicial officials towards gender aware post-conflict reconstruction methods.

So in both policy and practice the role of gender in peace and security matters within Africa becomes increasingly important. The extent to which it is understood and implemented at both levels remains fraught. It is inevitably only the joint desire of men and women to create a culture of peace and gender equality within their communities that could sensitize civil society and governments towards such a goal.

We must not and indeed cannot speak of the importance of gender in peace and security without acknowledging that men and boys must be a part of its construction. Gender equality without men and boys is in fact like a skeleton without a spine. Socializing and educating the very men and boys who pose as our fathers, brothers, sons and friends could help demystify the cultural myths binding war and masculinity. This would then reduce the threat of further violence during armed conflict immensely, enabling men and boys to play a pivotal role in fostering peace and security and disabling their desire to violate the human rights of women and children whose lives are made difficult by the uncertainty of ferocious armed conflicts.

* Mebrak Tareke works for International Alert.

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