Global pathways to men's caregiving: Mixed methods findings from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey and the Men Who Care study

Abstract

Promoting men's participation in unpaid care work is part of the Programme of Action for the International Conference on Population and Development. However, men's involvement in care work does not mirror the advances women have made in paid work outside the home. This mixed method study explores which men are more involved in caregiving, and what childhood and adulthood factors influence their level of involvement. Quantitative research presents findings from 1169 men across six countries with children aged 0–4, and a qualitative study presents findings from in-depth interviews with 83 men engaged in atypical caregiving practices. Survey research finds that being taught to care for children, witnessing one's father take care of one's siblings, respondents' present attitudes about gender equality and having outside help (or none, in some cases) were all also associated with men's higher level of involvement. Qualitative research reveals that men's experiences of violence, the normalisation of domestic work as children and life circumstances rather than greater-than-average beliefs in gender equality all propelled them into care work. Findings suggest that engaging more men into care work implies changes to policies and structural realities in the workplace coupled with changing gender attitudes. These insights inform policy and practice aimed at promoting greater involvement in care work by men.

Keywords:

• caregiving
• fatherhood
• gender equality
• masculinity
• men

Acknowledgements

Gary Barker, Promundo, Principal Investigator, Juan Manuel Contreras, Brian Heilman, Ajay Singh and Ravi Verma, and all of ICRW coordinated the development of IMAGES and the Men Who Care study. Margaret Greene was also Co-Investigator for Men Who Care. The country surveys were coordinated and authored by: Srdjan Dusanic and Perpetuum Mobile Centre for Youth and Community Development (Bosnia); Márcio Segundo, Marcos Nascimento and Christine Ricardo at Promundo (Brazil); Francisco Aguayo and Michele Sadler at CulturaSalud (Chile); Natasa Bijelic at CESI-Center for Education, Counseling and Research (Croatia); Ravi Verma and Ajay Singh at ICRW (India); Juan Guillermo Figueroa at El Colegio de México, México, D.F. (Mexico). Additionally, Abhijit Das and Satish Singh at Centre for Health and Social Justice (India), Josefina Franzoni and Natalia Flores at El Colegio de México (Mexico), Rachel Jewkes at the Medical Research Centre of South Africa, and Robert Morrell at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) coordinated the Men Who Care study in their countries, for which Jane Kato served as report editor, and carried out additional analysis.

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the various funders that contributed to this research including the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Government of the Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Portions of the analysis and country-level work were supported by CARE-Norway (Bosnia and Croatia); UN Women; and UNFPA (Chile). This publication was produced as part of the Men and Gender Equality Policy Project, coordinated by Promundo and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in collaboration with Perpetuum Mobile Centre for Youth and Community Development (Bosnia), Promundo-Brasil (Brazil), CulturaSalud (Chile), CESI-Center for Education, Counseling and Research (Croatia), Centre for Health and Social Justice (India), El Colegio de México, D.F. (Mexico), Medical Research Centre of South Africa and University of Cape Town (South Africa). All conclusions and opinions are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of any of the donors.

Notes

1. The full Men Who Care study can be downloaded at www.promundo.org.br/en.

2. There was some variation in the survey content by country: some country-specific questions were included while some countries excluded items due to local political and/or cultural considerations.

3. The authors used the education as an ordinal variable, with levels of education grouped into three categories: people who had (1) primary education or less, (2) completed secondary education and (3) had education beyond secondary level.

4. The GEM Scale was originally developed by the Population Council and Promundo with young men aged 15–24 years (Pulerwitz & Barker, 2008). For IMAGES, the GEM scale was slightly adapted with additional questions appropriate for adult men. However, care was taken that each country should have at least 15 common GEM items covering the same range of issues from the original scale: sexuality, violence, household tasks, homophobia and male/female roles.

5. Specific results can be obtained from the author.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: The authors would like to acknowledge the various funders that contributed to this research including the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Government of the Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Portions of the analysis and country-level work were supported by CARE-Norway (Bosnia and Croatia); UN Women; and UNFPA (Chile). This publication was produced as part of the Men and Gender Equality Policy Project, coordinated by Promundo and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in collaboration with Perpetuum Mobile Centre for Youth and Community Development (Bosnia), Promundo-Brasil (Brazil), CulturaSalud (Chile), CESI-Center for Education, Counseling and Research (Croatia), Centre for Health and Social Justice (India), El Colegio de México, D.F. (Mexico), Medical Research Centre of South Africa and University of Cape Town (South Africa). All conclusions and opinions are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of any of the donors.