Males and Tertiary Education in Jamaica by Herbert Gayle & Peisha Bryan

Abstract

It is vexing. This review may be dismissed as an “angry feminist rant” about the recently published ode to hegemonic masculinity, Males and Tertiary Education in Jamaica. The book continues a rather curious peregrination into the so-called “crisis” of Jamaican masculinity. The authors, Herbert Gayle (a social anthropologist) and Peisha Bryan (a social sector specialist) examine the “plight of males” as it relates to their level of “investment” in education. Building on existing scholarly research on the low participation of men in tertiary education specifically, they dub this problematic in the book’s preface a “clash between Jamaican males and education” (p. xiv). But, are we dealing with a clash between Jamaican males and education, or the conflict-tending relationship between males and their sacredly held cow—the institution of patriarchy? Did the authors miss an opportunity to see the problem for what it truly is: patriarchy chipping away at its construction of masculinity as always and already manifested through independence and the shouldering of the economic burdens of women and families?