Despite a clear connection between violence against children and violence against women, the two issues are rarely considered together. In this article from the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Early Childhood Matters, Gary Barker and Marcos Nascimento discuss results from their recent research in Brazil and from global survey data.
Entre Nós (“Between Us”) is an innovative multi-media campaign to engage Brazilian youth in critical reflections on rigid ideas about gender and how they influence their lives and relationships. The campaign was developed and implemented by Promundo, a Brazilian NGO based in Rio de Janeiro, and a group of young women and men peer educators…continue reading
This article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of a twenty-four-item scale to measure attitudes toward gender norms among young men: the Gender-Equitable Men (GEM) Scale. Scale items on gender norms related to sexual and reproductive health, sexual relations, violence, domestic work, and homophobia are designed. Items are based on previous qualitative work in the…continue reading
This article presents findings from a pilot intervention in 2005–2006 to promote gender equity among young men from low-income communities in Mumbai, India. The project involved formative work on gender, sexuality and masculinity, and educational activities with 126 young men, aged 18–29, over a six-month period. The programme was called Yaari Dosti, Hindi for friendship…continue reading
This chapter illustrates how gender represents a complex interplay of contextual and individual factors, which create advantages and disadvantages for both young women and young men in terms of sexuality and related health issues. It applies an ecological model to emphasize how gender norms, as they relate to sexual behavior, are internalized by the individual through an…continue reading
This article presents findings from the Gender-Equitable Men (GEM) Scale and lessons from Program H in Latin America. It concludes that, given the short timescale of many interventions with young men, it is often unrealistic to expect changes in behavior, and difficult to measure such change. The GEM Scale thus provides a potentially more sensitive…continue reading
Gary Barker presents results from an action-research project that sought to identify more gender-equitable young men in a low income setting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where violence against women was common. The research identified factors that may have contributed to the young men’s alternative values and were incorporated into a community intervention that seeks…continue reading
