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Social Dimensions of Achieving Gender Equity in Higher

Education: Men and Masculinities as Linchpin Issues

in Realizing EFA Goals

Jason A. Laker, Ph.D.Professor and Chair, Department of Counselor Education

Lurie College of EducationSan José State University, California, USA

jlaker.sjsu@gmail.com

Higher Education and the Global Agenda: Alternative Pathways to the Future Higher Education and the Global Agenda: Alternative Pathways to the Future IAU 14th General Conference IAU 14th General Conference

27-30 November 2012 27-30 November 2012 Inter American University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto RicoInter American University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

EFA Goal 5 Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality

What have we learned from research, applications and reforms for girls/women?

Gender Matters It is a fundamental organizing principle in societies

globally. Gendered Strategies work

UNESCO's 2009 Global Education digest Female students in PSE rose 6x from 1970-2007; Men 4x PSE graduates-women outnumber men in 75 of 98

nations. Since PSE gender parity in 2003, women’s participation

has been surpassing males Men continue to outnumber women in engineering,

manufacturing, and construction in all countries for which figures were available.

We’re not done... We can and must continue momentum in

promoting girls/women’s safety, access, success, employment, leadership, etc.

Avoid zero-sum, binary thinking We’re all co-conspirators in each other’s

problems and solutions (moms and dads raise boys and girls!)

We must avoid “vs” framing/work.

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Gender Equity is achievable. Positive Cross-Gender

Relations are achievable. If there were a simple

solution, it would have been done already.

We talk often about gender equity, but rarely about gender, including understanding males as gendered beings.

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“…the important fact of men’s lives is not that they are biological males, but that they become men. Our sex may be male, but our identity as men is developed through a complex process of interaction with the culture in which we both learn the gender scripts appropriate to our culture and attempt to modify those scripts to make them more palatable.” -Kimmel, 1998

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“…gender is an act which has been rehearsed, much as a script survives the particular actors who make use of it, but which requires individual actors in order to be actualized and reproduced as reality once again." (Butler, 1990, p. 272).

Discrepancy-strain Failing to live up to ideal

of masculinity Dysfunction strain

Achieving manhood’s requirements hurts/costs the man

Trauma-strain Masculine role

socialization is inherently traumatic.

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Pleck, J. H. The gender role strain paradigm: An update. A new psychology of men. In Levant, Ronald F. (Ed); Pollack, William S. (Ed), (1995). A new psychology of men, (pp. 11-32). New York, NY, US: Basic Books, xiv, 402 pp.

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“Men are not exploited or oppressed by sexism, but there are ways in which they suffer as a result of it. This suffering should not be ignored. While it in no way diminishes the seriousness of male abuse and oppression of women, or negates male responsibility for exploitative actions, the pain men experience can serve as a catalyst calling attention to the need for change.”

-hooks (1984)

Restrictive Emotionality

Socialized Control, Power, and Competition

Restrictive Sexual and Affectionate Behavior –

Obsession with Achievement, Work and Success

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Adapted from: O'Neil, J., Helms, B., Gable, R., David, L., Wrightman, L. (1986). Gender role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14, 335-350.

Restrictive Emotionality- A man who has learned to restrict his emotions will need to understand that emotional expressiveness is not a part of some feminine stereotype but part of being a full human being.

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Adapted from: O'Neil, J., Helms, B., Gable, R., David, L., Wrightman, L. (1986). Gender role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14, 335-350.

Socialized Control, Power, and Competition- A man who validates his masculinity through power and control makes himself vulnerable in many ways. The tragedy of the controlling man is that he forfeits interpersonal and emotional flexibility which are essential for open communication, conflict management, and intimacy: all of which help sustain and revitalize interpersonal relationships.

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Adapted from: O'Neil, J., Helms, B., Gable, R., David, L., Wrightman, L. (1986). Gender role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14, 335-350.

Restrictive Sexual and Affectionate Behavior– For men, sex is often seen as a means of measuring performance, achievement, and one's masculinity. Men who demonstrate restrictive interpersonal affection view sex as an objective-impersonal process and have a difficult time expressing affection in ways other than sex.

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Adapted from: O'Neil, J., Helms, B., Gable, R., David, L., Wrightman, L. (1986). Gender role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14, 335-350.

Obsession with Achievement, Work and Success-Preoccupation with work, accomplishments, and eminence can cause conflicts between career and domestic responsibilities. Men who define their self-worth primarily as career success experience intense pressure to succeed.

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Adapted from: O'Neil, J., Helms, B., Gable, R., David, L., Wrightman, L. (1986). Gender role conflict scale: College men's fear of femininity. Sex Roles, 14, 335-350.

For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable;

For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of "knowing everything;"

For every woman who is tired of being called "an emotional female,“ there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle;

For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes,there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity;

For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who is tired of being a success object;

For every woman who feels "tied down" by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood;

For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being;

For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking;

For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation,there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.

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by Nancy R. Smith (reprinted from "The Sojourner", a newsletter of The Women's Center, Duke Divinity School)

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