The Role of Men in Families- Achieving Gender Equity and Supporti

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The role of men in families:

achieving gender equity and supportingchildren

Patrice L Engle

Fathers and men in families represent one of the most important resources for children’s wellbeing. Social services, including development interventions in the South, have hitherto failed totake into consideration the major role of men in families, and its effects on women, on children,and on the men themselves.

recent UNICEF report concludes,

AÌf UNICEF is going to continue tocontribute to development goals

and gender equality...there will have to begreater efforts to involve men’ (Richardson,1995, p. 6). Similar concerns have beenraised by the Ford Foundation, Save theChildren, and many other NGOs. Thatmen should be involved in reproductivehealth programmes was a major recommendation from the Cairo Conference onPopulation and Development. Despite

this interest, social service and health programmes continue to target mothers andchildren, ignoring the role of men in thelives of children.

In recent years, most developmentinterventions focusing on the well-beingof the family have stressed the importanceof the mother/child relationship, even insocieties in which the father controlsdecisions about the household and familywelfare. Economic instabili ty, and theinability of institutions in both developedand developing countries to increase theircontributions to families, have led to a

search for additional sources of supportfor children (Bruce et al., 1995). The effortson the part of the state, and many develop

ment organisations, to improve the welfareof children by increasing male incomeproved to be less effective than originallyexpected in terms of improving children’snutritional status and health (Marek, 1992).

Not only has the income of men not benefited children as much as expected;women are more likely to use their incomefor the well-being of children than are

men (e.g., Jackson, 1996). Agencies havesponsored income-generating projects forwomen, and the provision of credit forpoor women. However, while approacheswhich focus on women have had many

benefits both for women and for children,there is considerable evidence that thisfocus may increase the workload ofalready overburdened women, reducingtheir personal well-being and their abilityto care for their children (McGuire andPopkin, 1990).

This article surveys programmeinitiatives, conferences, research, and



publications concerned with the role ofmen in the family, organised by agenciessuch as UNICEF, The Population Council,and the Consultative Group for EarlyChildhood Care and Development.

Social fatherhood

The concept of `father’ needs to bewidened from a biological role to onewhich emphasises socialisation andsupport of many kinds during childhood.Although this nurturing aspect of `fatherhood’ is recognised across cultures, theperson who plays the father role may ormay not be the biological father. Responsibility for children may fall to the mother’s

brother; or older male kin such as thegrandfather (Richardson, 1995). A `socialfather’ may take responsibility for all ofthe children a woman has, even thoughsome were biologically fathered byanother man. The narrow concept of`father’ could thus be appropriatelyreplaced with ̀ men in families’.

Four of the major contributions menmake to family life are: taking economicresponsibility for children, building acaring relationship with children,reducing the chances of ùnpartneredfertility’,1 and ensuring gender equality inthe family (Family Impact Seminar, 1995;Richardson, 1995). The absence of any ofthese will represent a problem for

children’s development; while taking suchroles can enhance the lives of men. Thisnew perspective has been seen as a threat

by feminists and others who havestruggled long and hard to bring women’sissues to the forefront (Engle, 1995).

Fathers in families

The percentage of female-headed households in developing countries ranges fromabout 10 to 25 per cent, and has increasedgradually over the last decade (Bruce et al,1995). The highest rates of female head

ship are reported in the African countriesof Botswana (46 per cent), Swaziland (40per cent), Zimbabwe (33 per cent), and theCaribbean countries such as Barbados (44per cent) and Grenada (43 per cent). Somerates in the developed countries are

equally high, ranging from 38 per cent inNorway, 30 per cent in Germany, and 32per cent in the United States (UnitedNations, 1995).

Many of these statistics reflect patternsof family formation which differ from theWestern model of a nuclear family. InBotswana, which has a high rate of femaleheadship, mothers live with their natalfamilies until their partners are well intotheir forties (many men are migrantworkers in South African mines). Eventhough support is customarily provided

by the mother’s family, these families arestill reported as female-headed.

However, residence of the father withinthe household does not always implyeither an economic contribution to hisfamily, or involvement with his children.

In the Caribbean, for example, many mencontribute to their children’s upkeep, buthave only a visiting relationship with theirchildren’s mother; whereas others may beco-resident in a household, but provide noeconomic support for the family due topoverty, lack of employment, or spendingon alcohol or drugs (Brown et al, 1994).Research shows that if the presence of the

father is to have a positive effect, thisrequires some involvement of the fatherwith the child (e.g. Levine et al., 1993).Research and programme efforts need tolook at the relationship between fatherand child, rather than just co-habitation.

Forces affecting the family

Two forces which may influence familyformation and the role of men in families,are urbanisation, and changing patterns inwomen’s employment, with underemployment of men. Urbanisation is charac



teristic of the industrialised regions of theworld, which UN statistics cite as 77-78per cent urban. South America is equallyurban: rural, as is Northern Africa; and therest of Africa andAsia are between 28and33percent urban (United Nations, 1995). Urban

populations are growing in all areas,especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.The changing gender composition of

the workforce in developing countries islikely to have significant effects for men’sroles (Evans, 1995). In the past two decades,women’s employment, as measured innational census surveys (primarily formalemployment) has increased in all areas,except sub-Saharan Africa and EasternAsia. In comparison, men’s economicactivity rates have declined significantlyeverywhere except central Asia (e.g.,US 81to 75 per cent, Latin America 85 to 82 percent, Southern Asia 88 to 78 per cent)(United Nations, 1995).

Effects of fathers on

childrenBuilding a caring relationship and child-careIn the literature, `father involvement’normally refers to the establishment ofwarm and close relationships betweenfathers and their children. This can beaccomplished with relatively little timeinvestment; the most important ingredientappears to be positive emotion and

attention to children. Although infantsinitially show preference for mothers overfathers, infants become attached to theirfathers by the end of the first year of life,even if the fathers spend relatively littletime with them (Cox et al, 1992).

In the US and Europe, studies havereported that fathers who were involvedwith their children contribute greatly to

their children’ s intellectual, social, andemotional development. Easterbrooks andGoldberg (1985) found that the quality ofthe interaction (the father’s sensitivity tothe toddler’s needs) was a better predictor

of the children’s cognitive performance thanthe amount of time spent with the child.

For men in many parts of the world, tohave a ̀ caring relationship’ with an infant oryoung child is a novel expectation. For example,someparticipantsataseminarin Lesotho

in 1991 felt that the interactions thatAfrican men have with very young childrenare rare, accidental, and of little importance.(Bernard van Leer Foundation, 1992).

For example, fathers in Zimbabwe,were surprised to learn that they `should’play with their children from birth onward;they expected to wait until the childrencould talk. However, for older children, thepattern changes: in most African countries,fathers and grandfathers train older sons.

Fathers’ time in infant and child careWorldwide, fathers spend significantlyless time in child care than mothers. Barryand Paxson (1971) summarised ethnographicreports from 186 cultures, and found thatthe percentage of cultures in which fathershad `regular, close relationships’ during

infancy was 2 per cent, and 5 per cent inearly childhood, although the percentagein which fathers were in frequent closeproximity was much higher (32 per centfor infants, 52 per cent for young children).

However, some fathers do spend timeperforming child-care activities. Jahn andAslam (1995) observed men living insquatter settlements in Karachi, Pakistan.

In 75 per cent of observations of children being carried, the man was the carrier,even when the woman was present. Howthese patterns change with urbanisationand increased maternal employment (anddecreased paternal employment) will beimportant to investigate; new expectations for father involvement may emergeif alternative providers of child-care areunavailable.

Effects on fathers themselvesOne of the benefits of the changing rolesfor men in families is increased closenessto children. An extreme case is repres



ented by men who take primary care fortheir children. This number is small, but iscontinually growing. These men often didnot choose the role, but many express howmuch the experience has meant to them,and the importance of their attachment to

their children (e.g., Davis and Chavez,1995, for Hispanic men in the US).

Economic support forchildren

Female-headed householdsA contribution to household income fromfathers tends to be associated withimproved child status; female-headedand maintained households with childrenare generally poorer than families with amale head, although there is considerablevariation depending on the social andeconomic context of the female heads .

It is a truism in development circlesthat female-headed households areamong ̀ the poorest of the poor’. This pointhas recently been questioned, in relation

to the degree of economic poverty, butalso in relation to the degree of access thatsuch households have to decision-makingwithin their communities and in widersociety (Varley 1996). Certainly, childrenin female-headed households are notalways worse nourished than those inmale-headed households. Studies showthat negative effects of female headship

are seen in Latin America, but not sub-Saharan Africa (Desai, 1991).

Studies have shown that although thefather’s income may have a positive effecton food expenditures and child well

being, these effects may be smaller than ifthe income were under the mother’scontrol (Hoddinott and Haddad, 1995;Buvinic et al, 1992). Women may be more

likely to perceive children’s needs, maydevelop stronger attachment to the child,and social roles may dictate that womenare responsible for obtaining food forchildren (Engle, 1990).

In Kenya and Malawi, despite lowerincomes, a smaller percentage of childrenin female-headed households weremalnourished than in male-headed households (Kennedy and Peters, 1992). InBotswana, children in female-headed

households received more education thanchildren in male-headed households(Kossoudji and Mueller, 1983).

Costs of father’s presenceThe presence of the father is not always apositive force in either women’s orchildren’s lives. Women may improvetheir situation and that of their children byleaving an abusive partner. In a collection

of studies of violence against womenworldwide, rates ranged from 20 to 60 percent (Heise, Pitanguy and Germain, 1994).It is possible that abuse of children is morecommon if a man is present in the family.

The cost to the family of the father’sconsumption of food and resources may

be a drain on the family budget, particularly if he is not employed or is spending

money on alcohol or cigarettes .

Avoidance of ùnpartneredfertility’

The third contribution that men can maketo responsible fatherhood is to avoidsexual encounters which risk the birth ofunplanned and unwanted children. Few

cultures emphasise sexual restraint on thepartofyoungmales.Ratherthanencouragingthe use of contraception and sex educationto prevent the birth of unwanted children,traditional cultures attempt to protectyoung women through a combination ofstrict religious constraints on sexuality, orvery early marriage (Richardson, 1995).

When pregnancies do occur, families

may put great pressure on the couple toform a relationship. However, increasedacculturation and urbanisation mayundermine these supports. In a ruralGuatemalan community, the rate of



Gender and Development Vol 5 No. 1 February 1997

unpartnered fertility has doubled in thepast decade, from 6 per cent to 12 per cent(Engle and Smidt, 1996). In the US, amongteen mothers, 67 per cent of `traditional’Hispanics were married, compared to only44 per cent of `non-traditional’ Hispanics

(Mirande, 1988).

Effects of gender inequalityin the home

Gender inequality in the home, (i.e.menhaving a greater amount of authority indecision-making) has been associatedwith increased rates of domestic violence

or restriction of life opportunities forwomen. Patriarchal control is oftenassociated with low rates of schooling forgirls, low status of women, early age ofmarriage, and high rates of malnutritionfor children (Ramalingaswami et al, 1996).

Despite similar levels of income andhealth care services in sub-Saharan Africaand South Asia, rates of malnutrition inSouth Asia are almost twice as high. Theauthors explain this Àsian enigma’ as aconsequence of the extreme subordinationof women in South Asia: `Judgment andself-expression and independence largelydenied, millions of women in South Asiahave neither the knowledge nor the meansnor the freedom to act in their own andtheir children’s best interests’ (ibid., 15).

Ways forward: promotingcommitted fatherhood

International advocacyInternationalconferencesÐsuchasUNICEF’sInnocenti Global Seminar (Richardson,1995), and the Population Council’s TallerPara Padres Responsables (Workshop onResponsible Fatherhood) (Engle and

Alatorre Rico, 1994) Ð are opening thedebate. The groundwork was laid forincluding men in reproductive healthprogrammes at the Cairo InternationalConference on Population and Develop

ment (Richardson, 1995). Now manygroups are including fathers in their plans.However, gender equity must be includedin all these discussions.

Legal protection for childrenEstablishing protection for children ofabsent fathers may be quite difficult(Folbre, 1992). For example, in Mexico thislack of protection is due to the deficiencyof Mexican law (Brachet-Marquez, 1992).Desertion is necessary in order to seek anaward for child support, but is notrecognised in law if the husband returnswithin six months. This means a man cancome and go for years as long as he spends

one night every six months at home.If a husband chooses to stop paying to

support his child, the burden of initiatinglegal procedures falls on the wife. Manyhusbands simply claim insolvency (ibid),and monitoring fathers’ income is extremely difficult. The scarcity of employmentin Mexico has resulted in more and moremen earning untraceable non-wage money.

Similar problems occur in other countries.

Promoting caring relationshipsA community-based effort to build andsupport fathering skills has been remarkably successful in the Caribbean. TheCaribbean Child Development Centre hasestablished fathers’ groups, which haveformed an organisation called Fathers Inc.Fathers, who are often non-resident withtheir families, follow a curriculum to learnparenting skills (Brown et al, 1994). Reasonsfor the success of the groups are that theyare men-only, and are initiated by men’sinterest in their children (Caribbean ChildDevelopment Center, 1994).

A second strategy is to bring fathersinto schools and day-care centres, to helpwith child care. To be effective at building

caring relationships, these programmesmust increase fathers’ interaction withtheir children, rather than simplyallowing men to take part in the sameactivities as their children side-by-side.



Kavanaugh (1992) describes a project tocreate father and child nights at a day-carecentre in New Mexico, USA. The success ofthe programme was attributed to balancing discussion with activities, promotingattendance by making contact with men

face-to-face to invite them, having a malemember of staff, and making a formalcontract with the fathers to attend.

Levine et al (1993) created a manualpromoting methods to encourage theinvolvement of biological fathers, or`father substitutes’ , in pre-school programmes in the US for low-incomechildren. Some of his suggestions include

becoming aware of cultural limitation onthe father role, providing men with avariety of ways of being involved, keepingopen to various kinds of men in the child’slife (e.g. grandfathers), and becomingaware of resistance both in the staff andamong the mothers to men’s involvement.

Experimental studies have shown thatshort-term programmes focusing on childdevelopment and fathering can have

significant effects. Marked improvementwas seen in the relationship of fathers toadolescents in Cameroon (Nsamenang,1992), to newborns and young infantsafter prenatal education in the US (Parkeet al 1979), and to pre-school-agedchildren after a ten-week father-onlyprogramme in the US (McBride,1991).These fathers reported feeling more

responsible for daily decisions about theirchildren, the kind of involvement whichmen are least likely to achieve. The mosteffective programmes were those whichincluded mothers in separate training,since the changes involved both parents.

Combining fatherhood development and job-training skills

Because a primary cause of lack of supportfor children appears to be too manyobligations for men, programmes in theUS have attempted to increase low-

income unwed fathers’ payment of childsupport through combined job training,

job placement, payment enforcement, andfatherhood education projects (e.g. , thePublic/Private Ventures Project, Achatzand MacAllum, 1994). Despite great diffi

culties in recruiting fathers into theprogramme, the results have been encouraging: child-support payments haveincreased, and men’s feelings aboutthemselves have improved (ibid). Thisprogramme included a component labelledthe Fatherhood Development Curriculum.Once a week, the men in the project met todiscuss issues of manhood and fatherhood, andconsiderthemother’sperspective.

Educating children in broader gender rolesEducation for children in responsiblefatherhood is likely to have a lower (socialand economic) cost than redressing currentproblems through direct re-education forfathers. Klinman (1986) developed a planto give boys in junior high and high school(11-18) experience with young children

through working in pre-school programmes. In many societies, young men areused as child-care providers as well asyoung women, and this helps their abilityto nurture.

Establishing rights to paternity leaveAnother strategy to increase father involvement is to promote child-care leave forfathers, either paid or unpaid, and flexibleworkinghours.However, such opportunitiesare used by only about 10 per cent in theUS and Sweden (Pleck, 1985). The lowusage of paternal child-care leave may bedue to prejudice by employers, the desireof the wife to stay at home, or possible lossof income for the father.

Father involvement at this stage alsohas the obvious benefit of alleviating the

workload of mothers. An approach whichhad this aim was a Save the Childrenproject in Vietnam (Richardson, 1995).Husbands were told that they could



reduce the health-care costs for theirchildren if their wives were to work lessduring pregnancy and immediately postpartum. In the communes which receivedthe messages, women had significantlymore rest days while pregnant, and higher

birthweight babies, and men felt moreempowered to help their wives.

Paternity as an issue for social servicesAs stated earlier, a bias noted frequently

by researchers into fathering has been theexclusive attention to mothers and childrenwithin much of the health and socialservice literature. According to Bolton(1986), in the social service field in theUS, men are either providers, the `goodguys’, or they are not providers, in whichcase they are the `bad guys’. There is littleawareness that some men may choose tostay at home to take care of children, ormay be unable to work due to unemployment, lack of training, or disability. Socialservices need to recognise that many fathersare trying to meet their obligations; there

are only a few `bad’ ones. They themselvesmay be in need of help; inability to meet thedemands of being a provider often drivesmen away from paternal responsibilities. Inhealth-care services, the role and significance of the father, which varies accordingto cultural context, needs to be understoodif health-care provision is to be appropriate and uptake maximised. The role of

the father may be significant. For example,in the US the father’s opinion was one ofthe most important indicators of whethera mother went for prenatal care (Sable et al ,1990) and breastfed. One recommendationfrom Pakistan is to develop a two-prongedapproach, continuing outreach to women,

but adding outreach to men (Jahn andAslam, 1995).

In Vietnam, it was found that men hadvery little knowledge of UNICEF’s `Factsfor Life’. UNICEF organised a contest formen, to survey knowledge of these issues,and write an essay. About 47,000 entries

were received. In the months followingthe contest, oral rehydration therapy(ORT) use increased by 60 per cent, andchild immunisation rose to 90 per cent.Grandfathers were particularly interestedin increasing their involvement with

children (reported in Richardson, 1995).

Encouraging paternalresponsibility’

Following recommendations from Cairo,reproductive health programmes have

begun to target sex education messages tomen as well as to women. There is some

concern that giving men the messages willsimply disempower women again, afteryears of struggling to place reproductivecontrol in the hands of women. Genderequity as well as increasing the role of menmust be the focus.

There is also a growing attempt bygovernments to establish male paternityat the time of the child’ s birth . In onesuccessful example in the US, almost two-thirds of unmarried parents voluntarilyacknowledged paternity if they wereprovided the opportunity during the firstfew days postpartum (Family ImpactSeminar, 1995).

Promoting gender equality

The strongest predictor of improved

gender equity in the home is women’seducation (Richardson, 1995) and relatedincome-earning. Thus, increasing accessto education for girls has been a majorfocus of international pressure. In SouthAsia, women’s combined disadvantagesof lack of education, dowry, and youngage at marriage (10-14) result in low statusin the family. In Rajasthan, India, a

UNICEF project promoted education forgirls and delaying the age of marriage. Asa result of two- or three-day visits andawareness-raising by a team of fivewomen, who met with male village



leaders and visited house-to-house, thenumber of adolescent girls in schoolincreased, and the number of marriagesdecreased ( Richardson, 1995).

UNIFEM and the Bahai church wereable to change men and women’s views

about traditional male and female roles inMalaysia, Bolivia, and Cameroon throughthe use of drama and song, and consultation. Men were helped to understand thedisproportionate workloads of women.As a result, spouse abuse and alcoholismhave declined (Richardson, 1995).

Conclusions

At last, the critical role of men in familiesfor the well-being of children, women,and of the men themselves is beingrecognised. Men’s involvement in the`private sphere’ of the household andfamily is as crucial to economic and socialdevelopment as the involvement ofwomen in the `public sphere’ of income-generation and community decision-

making. Furthermore, the two areinterlinked: many successful developmentprojects promoting women’s participationoutside the home have been aided bysupport from sympathetic men. In theabsence of such support, the potential

benefits for women, children and menthemselves are jeopardised.

There are a number of techniques

which can be used to support men in theirparenting role while promoting genderequity in the home, but these issues must

be linked. Perhaps the most effective will be those which are preventative, whichwork with the next generation of mothersand fathers to expand their roles and stressthe importance of both parents’ contributions. Following Barker et al’ s recom

mendation from Rio de Janeiro (1995), weneed to support the non-traditional menwho are striving to construct new role-models for themselves. The benefits tocurrent fathers, to their partners, and to

their children of their involvement withyoung children suggests that we mustwork in this direction.

Patrice Engle teaches at Cal Poly StateUniversity, San Luis Obispo, CA

e-mail: [email protected]

Notes

1 Ùnpartnered fertility’ is the procreationof children with a biological mate withwhom the other parent does not have asocial relationship.

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The Role of Men in Families- Achieving Gender Equity and Supporti