Gender Studies

Most workplaces think of dual-earner households as broadly equitable in unpaid domestic labour. Time-use data has been unambiguous for decades that they are not. UK Office for National Statistics data (2016, 2023) and US Bureau of Labor Statistics data (2019, 2022) consistently show women in dual-earner households performing approximately 2 additional hours of unpaid labour per day. Across a year, this equates to roughly 30 additional 24-hour days, or 90 additional 8-hour working days of unpaid work. A counterintuitive supplementary finding: cohabitation with a male partner increases women’s housework hours by 4-5 hours per week and decreases men’s by 1-2 hours (Gupta 1999; Baxter, Hewitt & Haynes 2008). The presence of a male partner increases female labour rather than decreasing it. The economic sequelae are substantial. Killewald (2013) documented a fatherhood earnings premium of approximately 6% for men. Motherhood is associated with a permanent earnings penalty of approximately 4-7% per child for women (Correll, Benard & Paik 2007). The same life event produces opposite economic outcomes. The retirement consequence: women in most OECD economies retire with roughly half the pension savings of men, driven substantially by the compounding effect of the motherhood penalty and unpaid caregiving labour. The workplace implication is not to feel guilty. It is to build systems that count the labour that has always been done but never counted. The strongest lever available to individual men is simple: take permanent ownership of one previously-shared domain, and stop asking her about it. Sources in comments. 🧬

How Does Gender Socialization Impact Boys and Men Post-Conflict? 🌍 Family, religious, and customary institutions play a pivotal role in shaping gender norms in post-conflict societies. Post-conflict peace may be restored, but not for all equally. While peace may return, traditional norms still hold the reins, perpetuating male dominance. 🔍 The recent research "Reconstructing Masculinities: Gender Dynamics After Conflict," published by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation / 公益財団法人 笹川平和財団 , Integral Knowledge Asia, and Conciliation Resources, aimed to understand how social institutions socialize gender norms across generations, making them resilient to change without targeted interventions. ⚖️ This study was conducted in Aceh and Maluku in Indonesia, and Bangsamoro in the Philippines, where masculinity is linked to power and violence. These regions struggle to implement the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda because their peace processes largely exclude women, and post-conflict efforts focus more on security and infrastructure than on addressing gender inequality. 👨👩👧👦 The second finding of this study reveals the influence of family, religious, and customary institutions in socializing men and boys into protector and breadwinner roles, while women are confined to caregiving duties. Engaging these institutions is essential for challenging patriarchal norms and promoting equitable gender relations. 🎨 As artivists, we harness the power of responsible image-making to support vital social research and advocacy. Our illustrations in the report vividly portray deep-rooted gender socialization across generations. By bringing these dynamics to life, we aim to foster a better understanding of the transformative approaches needed in peacebuilding. 🖼️ The giant hand in the illustration symbolizes the powerful influence of larger institutions like family, religious, and customary institutions. These forces control men, depicted as puppets bound by strings, and restrict their ability to explore roles beyond traditional gender norms. This visual representation highlights how deeply entrenched societal expectations limit men’s freedom and perpetuate traditional masculinity. #PeaceBuilding #GenderEquality #Masculinity #PostConflict #Gender #ArtActivism #Art

Undoing Men’s Privilege and Advancing Gender Equality In this journal article, Michael Flood and Bob Pease argue that advancing gender equality in public sector institutions requires confronting men’s systemic privilege rather than focusing only on women’s disadvantage or individual acts of discrimination. They contend that many analyses of organisational inequality overlook how men, as a group, benefit from and sustain institutional arrangements of power. Privilege is defined as unearned advantages granted to members of dominant groups, conferred through social structures rather than personal merit. Male privilege is often invisible to those who hold it, is normalised as the societal standard, and fosters a sense of entitlement. Men rarely recognise these dynamics, accepting male-dominated workplaces and leadership as natural. Organisational cultures reinforce this privilege through gendered norms of management, leadership, and professional identity that equate authority and competence with masculinity. Privilege is enacted through everyday practices. Men may resist women’s entry to workplaces, exclude them from informal networks, objectify them to affirm masculine identity, or treat their presence as proof of women’s unsuitability. Even when formal barriers are removed, subtle interpersonal behaviours and male bonding sustain gendered hierarchies. Masculinity is “done” in daily interactions, reproducing inequality. Undoing privilege requires men to develop “traitorous identities”: a critical consciousness that rejects domination and aligns with the perspectives of the oppressed. Such transformation demands listening to women’s experiences, recognising intersecting hierarchies of race, class, sexuality, and acknowledging that men too can face constraints or harms from dominant masculinities. Intersectional analysis shows that most people experience both privilege and subordination in different contexts, complicating simple binaries of men versus women. Flood and Pease conclude that naming and interrogating men’s privilege provides a foundation for reform. Organisational training should expose how male advantage is constructed and encourage egalitarian identities and practices, fostering men’s active participation in building gender equality. For the full text of this article, see https://lnkd.in/g9-sXFCf

Some people question whether men support the idea of gender fairness. After all, they are far less likely to participate in gender-themed programing or disrupt gender bias and sexism in real time. But the evidence tells a different story. This important Catalyst Inc. research by Sheila Brassel, PhD and Emily Shaffer, including over 5,000 men from nine countries and more than 12 industries shows that most men DO want to close gender gaps at work. Consider these numbers: ▶️ 76% want their organization to identify areas where women employees are disadvantaged and change the culture in ways that produce gender equity. ▶️ 82% say that top managers should have a good understanding of gender equity issues. ▶️ 79% want their organizations to promote general cultural awareness of issues concerning women at work. ▶️ 75% think there should be equal or near-equal numbers of women and men at senior and middle levels of organizations. The problem? Pressure to conform to harmful — yet pervasive — stereotypes about masculinity suppresses men’s engagement in gender equity initiatives and daily acts of collaboration and allyship with women. David Smith and I refer to this as the Aspiration-Execution Gap in male allyship. In this study, 75% of men felt pressure to be aggressive, independent, and competitive at work and 87% want it to be more acceptable to express traits like empathy and kindness in their workplaces. Some solutions? ✅ Take a careful look at masculinity contest culture in your organization. ✅ Conduct listening sessions with men to learn more about the inhibitors to participation in gender fairness initiatives. ✅ Avoid shame/blame messaging and instead, show men the opportunity (for them, women, and the organization) and invite them in. ✅ Build inclusive and gender-fair attitudes and behaviors into all your leader development programming. ✅ Hire and promote those men who exhibit a track record of gender-intelligence, gender-inclusion, and who serve as powerful role models for other men. In companies where men are actively involved in gender diversity, inclusion, and fairness efforts, 96% report progress. In contrast, among companies where men are not involved, only 30% show progress. https://lnkd.in/ehXPUyzs

The Missing Men: Resisting "Gender" My recent field visits to Nigeria and Kenya, and participation in an Evidence Review on social norms interventions using entertainment media and faith and cultural champions, have highlighted a critical issue: efforts to shift gender norms are encountering increasing resistance from men in local communities. As soon as some men hear the word “gender,” they switch off. Whether faith-based or otherwise, interventions focused on gender have often sidelined men, framing them as passive supporters of women rather than active participants. In the development field, we’ve seen half-hearted attempts to “involve” men. A small example: how effective is it to schedule meetings during mid-day when they’re at work? This approach often leaves men feeling excluded, reinforcing their resistance to changes in gender norms. In both Kenya and Nigeria, men are grappling with feelings of disempowerment as the focus shifts predominantly toward empowering women. While women's empowerment is essential, we must ask: What about men’s experiences? How are they navigating the loss of traditional roles, especially when their social value has long been tied to economic and familial responsibilities? A striking example shared by a bright young Nigerian man in Abuja is that in times of economic hardship (which Nigeria is facing), educated men feel alienated when job postings favor women. In socio-economically disadvantaged contexts, where men’s ability to earn is diminished, and they cannot fulfill the traditional expectation of being a provider, development programs that ignore men are fueling growing resistance. The real-life experiences of men in many African countries must be acknowledged—particularly how evolving social and economic dynamics are shaping their sense of self-worth. Men, like women, need spaces where they can voice their concerns and vulnerabilities and feel like part of the conversation. Margrethe Silberschmidt’s work on male disempowerment in East Africa is still deeply relevant two decades later. As men’s roles shift, many tie their identity increasingly to their sexual behavior as a way of asserting lost power. This can reinforce harmful practices like polygamy and hypermasculinity. If development programs fail to account for men’s frustrations, we risk deepening gender divides rather than bridging them. Moving forward, male engagement needs to be reimagined—not as mere supporters of women’s empowerment but as active participants in shaping gender dynamics that benefit everyone. Donors often overlook funding programs aimed at men. Given the economic upheavals in many developing countries and the growing sense of disempowerment among men, is this a wise approach? #GenderRoles #MaleDisempowerment #Masculinity #SocialNorms #EastAfrica #Kenya #Nigeria #WomensEmpowerment #SocialChange