Managing masculinity in Ecuador

A project in rural Ecuador worked with a youth group to reduce gender-based power imbalances. Drawings, role plays and focus group discussions helped group members cope with complex issues in innovative and transformative ways.

At the participants' request, alcoholism was tackled first. The young men acted out a role play showing how they pressurise each other into drinking in order to maintain a show of appropriate masculinity. They then discussed the implications. The result was they agreed to stop pressurising each other to drink and made a pact that they would no longer consider alcohol consumption an essential attribute of local masculinity.

In a later session the men used a similar approach to explore the social environment that can lead to casual sex. This seemed to happen mostly after drinking and almost invariably as a result of peer pressure. One or two men would suggest having sex and the rest would feel obliged to go along, not only by having sex but also by pressurising others into it.

One group member said, 'If I refuse to accompany my mates to prostitutes I am jeered at. They used to say I was gay. Now I am engaged to be married they say I am under my old lady's thumb'. In this case too, the men agreed to reassess the links between masculinity and sexuality and subsequently to stop coercing each other into having sex with multiple partners.

Alcohol consumption reduced significantly, starting shortly after the agreement and still perceptible a year later. It was harder, however, to substantiate whether the men who claimed to have changed their sexual practices had actually done so.

Some learning points:

• Young people engaged with the project because of interesting activities that encouraged them to think about their lives from fresh viewpoints.
• Peer pressure around masculinity was the most significant issue for both men and women.
• The project helped its male participants realise the potentially negative consequences of the ways they would do almost anything to avoid mockery of not being 'real men'.
• Agreeing to stop peer pressure had a major impact on the behaviour of those who had felt coerced into conformity and even made some difference to that of the rest.

This approach can only work if there is a large group of men involved who support each other. It needs careful handling in urban settings where men interact with many other peer groups, most of which may not be included in the project.

It is especially important to convince large numbers to make changes in order to produce long-term impact, focusing particularly on strong leaders, who can have significant influence.

Women's participation is also vital, both to support their men-folk's decisions and to make corresponding changes in their own gender identities.

Colette Harris
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
T +44 (0)1273 606261
F +44 (0)1273 621202
C.Harris@ids.ac.uk

See also

Transformative Education for Development: a Journey of Personal Exploration, IDS Working Paper, IDS, Brighton, by Colette Harris, forthcoming 2006
www.ids.ac.uk/ids/bookshop/wp.html

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