I agree that the title of this post is rather misleading and maybe a little too broad because I really am not a good representative of Malawian men (and obviously no-one asked me to be) but on the other hand I am a man from Malawi and so I do have the legitimate claim to the title albeit not in all its permutations and understandings, so this broad title should be taken with a pinch of salt.
This being my first posting I will talk a little bit about my experiences and biases as well as my motivation for studying gender. Out of the many courses available to a Graduate student in Communication and Development I chose Gender and Development (yes I actually chose) for mainly professional reasons although I also had many personal motivations. As an employee of the United Nations I felt that having a good understanding of gender provides me a strong foundation for dealing with communities in different parts of the world in a manner that promotes equity.
I need to be honest that my initial understanding of gender advocacy was one of conflict between men and women. In my country there is a belief among large sections of the population that women who promote gender equality are essentially a bunch of divorcees who failed to manage their marriages and are therefore hellbent on confusing as many women as possible to join their crusade against men. Although I didn't fully subscribe to this theory, I couldn't help but notice the trend of failed marriages among the most vocal proponents of gender equality.
As a father, a brother and a son, it is my wish that my sisters and my daughter should not be denied opportunities in life for the simple reason that they are female, but rather they should be judged as Martin Luther King Junior said "by the content of their character". However for this to happen major changes need to take place at various levels in our society, and these changes need to come from within for them to stand a chance of success. It is encouraging that the voices from the South have facilitated an evolution in the framing of the gender agenda to include masculinities and men as part of the discourse which is a departure from earlier confrontational approaches to the contemporary pragmatic approach of inclusion.
The current focus on gender relations in GAD puts the spotlight on real "issues" e.g. exclusion of women, poor allocation of resources and gender based violence as opposed to the earlier approaches of WID and WAD whose focus was women. This ensures broad based support at community level as compared to the original binary framing of women versus men which in many cases only entrenched men's opposition to blatant "attacks" on the status quo by "a disgruntled group of women".
The few classes taken so far and the readings on gender especially by Kabeer have just increased my curiosity to understand the question of gender even more but at the same time has already provided me with so much understanding that I want to know more and to understand the world from a new perspective!
Hi Chiko, I had a question about this post. I don't know much about Malawi (I tried to search for info on this, too, but wasn't coming up with anything) so I was wondering about this statement you made. "Although I didn't fully subscribe to this theory, I couldn't help but notice the trend of failed marriages among the most vocal proponents of gender equality." Is divorce stigmatized in Malawi? Is one gender more stigmatized as a result of divorce? The feminist harpy lady (especially abra-burning, hairy-legged one in the American context) who can't keep a man and so is now a man-hater is a common trope here too, so I'm wondering if you would be able to theorize how it arose in the Malawian context. If divorced women are stigmatized perhaps they see themselves as having less to lose than married women in being openly feminist? Is there some other less-obvious factor at play?
ReplyDeleteThanks Chicko for sharing your prejudices with us and I have to admit that I at sometime before doing my masters I ascribed to the theory. However, the Egyptian version of is that the feminists in Egypt are a group of rich women who are friends of our then first lady (Mubarak’s wife) and all they do is attend conferences and meet foreigners and take aid for causes that ends up in their pockets. Ironically, when I was in Egypt this summer doing my research about Street and Sexual Harassment, I heard this argument but on a different scale from the founder of one of the organizations I was studying. My understanding of the feminist movement in Egypt is that its perception depends on the outcome if people see that those feminists are actually serving the issues they preach they could ascribe to their thought. Also my impression on Malawi is that you guys have women representation in political life at least your president is a women (which is something they indicate as political empowerment in UN organizations) yet what does that mean for other women? Are the policies of a female president more empowering to other women?
ReplyDeleteFor the divorce issue Jillian, from my experience in Egypt it is really stigmatized and a lot of issues related to women and gender issues are being silenced owing to the marriageability of the female, for example if you got harassed and wanted to report the harasser people could ask you if you are married and If you are not they would tell you why would you damage you reputation and marriageability by reporting this as if getting harassed is something shameful that you have to hide.
Chiko, your point about how many people in Malawi have a generalized homogeneous stereotype about local "feminists" or women's rights activists remind me of a profound point raised by Mohanty (2004) when she talked about how the Western world-view dominant discourse is not only produced by westerns but also by scholars form developing countries who adopted the dominant discourse. While Mohanty was talking about more a global level, the generalizing and stereotyping case that you described in Malawi regarding women's rights activists emphasize that patriarchal hegemonic discourse is produced at different levels and resisting it also happen at different level and in different ways. Here, I would like to ask you if you think you can search and share with us if there is in Malawi activism movement regarding gender equality that don't fit with the dominant discourse, let’s don’t keep it a “single story”.
ReplyDeleteChiko—Thank you for posting this and sharing your experiences with us. It is always interesting to hear how issues of gender translate over cultures and similarities that exist. I too latched on to the statement about divorce that Jillian mentioned in her post. It started me thinking about how women are portrayed in other scenarios. I feel while divorce may not be as heavily stigmatized in the contexts of the US, I have found recently identifying myself as someone with a feminist outlook is met with negativity. I have found some of my peers and even friends belittling my comments when there is even a hint of a feminist undertone. Why is it when I voice concern about the treatment of women, I am just laughed off or told to lighten up? Is this something that others have experienced in the context of the United States or other countries?
ReplyDeleteThe past few weeks of readings have really focused on the concept of identity and the importance of accurate representation of yourself and research. Before I took this course I was not even sure what gender was or had any idea the complexities that the question of social construction creates. It has left me wondering what are components of my own social constructions and what do I identify with? I am still left thinking of the points made by Mohanty and Nagar and how I can translate them into practice.