Role Of Men Research Articles

Study of consumer awareness of contraceptives selecting in the family planning process

The work aim is to study the degree of awareness of female consumers about the range of contraceptives and their use, as well as the process of providing contraceptives with the subsequent use of the results obtained to improve the contraceptives supply system for the right strategic marketing decision-making. During the study methods of searching, analyzing, generalizing data from information sources, systemic, comparative, marketing analysis, and survey were used. Results. Before the survey, the modern assortment of contraceptives study and an information array of them was formed, which was used to conduct conjoint analysis. At the same time, a survey among female respondents regarding their awareness of contraception issues was conducted. As a result of the survey, 420 questionnaires with full valid answers of women aged 16 to 49 years were collected. Each of the groups covered a 4-year age interval. In addition, 117 refusals of women to participate in the survey were collected. The reasons of refusals were also taken into account in the study for a broader understanding of the functioning problems of a modern contraceptives supply system. Conclusions. It was found that the degree to which women are familiar with the modern arsenal of contraceptives varies depending on their age. Overall, 78% of women are partially familiar with the entire range of contraceptives. The percentage of women who had a deficit of information about the range of contraceptives increases with the transition to older age groups: after the age of 30, every sixth woman in Ukraine does not know about the existence of some types of contraception. Among women who were familiar with the entire range, the age group of 25-29 years prevails, which is associated with active family planning processes in this age range - 6.42%. Women's views on the process of providing contraceptives and men's role in this process were analyzed. Thus, of the total number of respondents, 117 (21.78%) women refused to take part in the survey, explaining their refusal by their lack of interest in this topic, ignoring the use of contraceptives, or by their shyness. This "taboo" of the topic is closely related to the problems of sex education, problems of motivation and involvement of medical representatives in the dissemination of information about contraceptives and their importance in the process of family planning. In addition, 69% of women prefer to coordinate the choice of contraceptives with their husbands, and only 20% of female consumers, believe that the process of preventing or planning a pregnancy is personally a woman's business. The results of the survey prove the need to intensify health education work to improve the level of education of women and men on contraception, as well as expanding the boundaries of access to contraceptives for the target consumer. Keywords: contraception; consumers; pharmaceutical support

Increasing Men's Engagement in HIV Testing and Treatment Programs Through Crowdsourcing: A Mixed-Methods Analysis in Eswatini.

Sub-Saharan African HIV programs have had limited success in engaging men. Crowdsourcing contests may be a useful method to spur men's engagement in HIV services. We evaluated contributions and social media response to a crowdsourcing contest focused on increasing men's engagement in Eswatini HIV services. We conducted a crowdsourcing contest to gain insight from the public on how HIV campaigns can more effectively engage young (20-40 years old) men in HIV services. Eligible submissions included images, songs, videos, and Internet memes. We used standard qualitative methods to examine textual themes from submissions. We examined social media response using Facebook analytics, comparing the number of people reached through crowdsourced HIV messages and the number of people reached through conventional HIV messages. We received 144 submissions from 83 participants. They represented 55 towns and all 4 regions of Eswatini. The contest page gained 461 followers on Facebook. Emergent themes included appealing to men's roles as protectors by suggesting that they need to take care of their own health to continue safeguarding their families. Crowdsourced messages reached a mean of 88 individuals across 4 posts; conventional messages reached a mean of 75 individuals across 4 posts. Crowdsourcing contest submissions provided insight on how to encourage men to engage in Eswatini HIV services. Crowdsourcing contests can be effective in collecting messages from men to create more locally relevant communication materials for HIV programs.

The Role of Men During Pregnancy: A Cross-Sectional Study of Perceptions and Beliefs of Primary Caregivers in Tanzania

This study examined the relationship between men’s involvement and primary caregivers’ antenatal visits, acquiring antenatal tablets, and working less during pregnancy. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 5,000 Tanzanian primary caregivers living in households with one or more children under the age of 2 years. Results indicated that primary caregivers who received help from their husband/partner, or perceived that men in their community helped their pregnant spouses, were more likely to practice healthy antenatal care behaviors, including attending antenatal visits, acquiring antenatal tablets, and working less during pregnancy. Similarly, women who thought that all their friends receive help from their husbands/partners were twice as likely to reduce their workload during their pregnancy. These findings suggest the importance of male involvement and support during pregnancy in order to improve antenatal care, reduce workload, and increase tablet consumption among primary caregivers.

Exploring Manhood, Masculinities and the Roles of Men Regarding Pregnancy and Childbirth in a Humanitarianized War Zone of Easter Democratic Republic of Congo

This study aims to understand men and masculinities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where violence, armed conflicts, and the inability of the state to meet the basic needs of its population have justified the presence of heavy humanitarian aid interventions and probably shaped men’s behaviors. 
 Through this study, I seek to place men first in their local socio-cultural context in order to analyze their behavior and the roles men are called to play within their community. I put my particular attention on the global health agenda and guidelines interrogating how they materialize at the local level, taking the example of the push to increase so-called men’s involvement in prenatal care service. The following questions helped me to explore issues regarding masculinities in Goma and Kanyarutshinya. Who do we call a man? How does one become or un-become a man in the context of Goma and Kanyarutshinya, two specific locations where I conducted my research. Using ethnographic participant observation, I also collected my data using in-depth interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussion, life histories, and archival data.
 My analysis of the data collected has shown that war and armed conflict have deteriorated the status of men in the region and consequently, they felt deprived of their masculinity. Men living in a rural setting were attached to the local traditional values defining masculinity and these motivated their behaviors. In urban areas, on the contrary, men were more exposed to intercultural practices and had easy access to media and modern communication channels and were less concerned with local values of masculinities. 
 Everywhere, the precariousness of masculinity was observed; men, despite their efforts to avoid losing their masculinity used the so-called well-known concept of 'debrouillez-vous', failed despite everything. 
 Finally, I found that the call for ‘men’s involvement’ regarding pregnancy and childbirth in Goma and Kanyarutshinya using the international guidelines was almost irrelevant because men were already involved using the local standards. However, the biomedical prenatal care for men in Goma called CPN Papa failed to meet men’s expectations and rejected them, thereby undermining the program’s goals.

Determinants of male involvement in maternal healthcare services in southwest Nigeria

Background/Aims In Nigeria, women's partners are often excluded from taking part in maternal healthcare, as a result of sociocultural norms. However, the involvement of male partners in maternal healthcare services has the potential to improve maternal health outcomes. This study examined factors associated with male involvement in maternal healthcare services in Ife Central, Osun State, Nigeria. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted, involving 265 men living in Ife Central who were married with at least one child, selected by multistage sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to assess men's knowledge of their expected roles in maternal healthcare, their perception of male involvement, and their current level of involvement in their spouse's healthcare. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out to identify predictors of active male involvement in maternal healthcare, at a significance of P<0.05. Results Approximately half (55.6%) of the respondents had good knowledge of the expected role of men in maternal healthcare services and 76.6% had a positive perception of this role. Overall, less than half (47.6%) of the participants were actively involved in maternal healthcare services. The participants most frequently reported that men's involvement was influenced by their degree of knowledge (92.4%), job schedule (92.0%), and clinic waiting time (86.4%), among others. Age (odds ratio=2.33, P=0.038), educational status (odds ratio=2.42, P=0.004) religion (odds ratio=2.34, P=0.012), occupation (odds ratio=2.81, P<0.001) and level of knowledge (odds ratio=2.34, P=0.001) were found to be significantly associated with men's level of involvement in maternal healthcare services. However, only good level of knowledge (adjusted odds ratio=2.32, P=0.004) emerged as an independent predictor of men's level of involvement in maternal healthcare services. Conclusions The study concluded that men's involvement in maternal healthcare services was low, despite their positive perception towards it. Less than half of the participants had good knowledge regarding men's role in maternal healthcare, and this factor was identified as a significant predictor of level of involvement. Programmes and policies should aim to enhance men's knowledge of their role in maternal healthcare, and it may be necessary to restructure the healthcare delivery system to be more male friendly.

What are men's roles and responsibilities in the feminist project for gender egalitarianism?

AbstractThe #MeToo and the Time's Up movements have captured the urgency to address systemic manifestations of sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny in all aspects of society. Among the myriad discourses that have been catalyzed by these contemporaneous movements includes one related to the role of men in achieving gender egalitarianism. Men are allocated unearned privilege associated with being a man in a culture that is inherently phallogocentric. This fact alone charges men with the responsibility to account for the discursive and the institutional systems that afford them unearned privilege at certain relational costs that must be borne by women and, concomitantly, the feminine. The #MeToo and the Time's Up movements—which have initiated greater cultural recognition of the problems associated with establishing a society that is predicated on androcentric values—mark a pressing need, one that is much overdue, for men to interrogate the inequitable ways in which gender configures contemporary social relations. As a contribution to this effort, this article draws on reflexive accounts from men academics broadly invested in the study of gender and organizations and who are at different stages of their careers and from dispersed geographical areas, to respond to the question: What are men's roles and responsibilities in the feminist project for gender egalitarianism? In answering this question, these academics, individually and collectively, identify paths for allyship moving forward.

Relationality and Economic Empowerment: The Role of Men in Supporting and Undermining Women’s Pathways

Within development projects, empowerment is often construed in narrow terms, and increasingly in relation to economic empowerment. Feminist scholars have recently argued the need to bring back a more encompassing view of empowerment, which pays greater attention to relationality and changes in consciousness. In this article, we focus on one aspect of relationality – women’s relationships with men. Drawing on three case studies of women’s business success in Papua New Guinea, we argue men are pivotal in supporting and undermining women’s economic opportunities. Offering support to recent work on women’s empowerment which emphasizes both women’s relationships with men, and the specificity of contexts into account, our article contributes to current debates in gender and development.

Men's experiences of pregnancy and childbirth in Sierra Leone: Reexamining definitions of "male partner involvement".

In recent decades, global health researchers and policy makers have advocated for men's increased involvement in pregnancy and childbirth with the goal of improving maternal health outcomes. By "involvement," these actors generally refer to narrow-largely Western-definitions of participation: accompanying women to antenatal and postpartum care visits, engaging in childbirth education, or being present during delivery. However, such approaches often fail to account for the culturally valid and gendered ways in which men already are involved in supporting women's reproductive health. This study is based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and life histories conducted among 106 fathers in eastern Sierra Leone over the course of 2013-2016. Findings demonstrate that in Sierra Leone, where pregnancy and childbirth are considered to belong to the domain of women, men's primary role is to supply the material resources for a safe and healthy birth: a nutritious diet, transportation to healthcare facilities, medicines and supplies in the case of emergency, and the items to wash and dress the baby. While evidence suggests that gender norms are shifting to include other forms of intimate and emotional involvement, it is important to recognize existing forms of material support as valuable and essential forms of care. By restricting male involvement to biomedical notions of care, global health programs and policies risk discounting other types of socially meaningful support. Rather than disparaging young, African men for falling short of what Western organizations and researchers perceive to be "correct" behaviors, this paper attempts to highlight men's own understandings of involvement, so as to provide a more complete picture of the gendered nature of reproductive health in this context.

Bound to be grooms: the imbrication of economy, ecology, and bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

This article explores intersections among gender, violence and socio-economic insecurities through examining the practice of women’s abduction for forced marriage in rural Kyrgyzstan. In the post-Soviet period, bride-kidnapping has been discussed as an expression of reviving 'traditional' ethnic culture and as a system of social rules that constrain actors in a variety of ways. Understanding of this practice requires a more nuanced analysis of the links between various forms of vulnerabilities and gender violence it expresses. Previous work has overlooked men's roles within bride abduction process which are not simply men's exertion of authority but are intricate reflections of wider changes taking place in newly independent Kyrgyzstan. Through an analysis of interviews with forty-five men who have been involved in bride kidnappings we build a nuanced account of the broader system of structural and institutional inequalities that comprise ala kachuu and make social actors less agentic. The article links bride-kidnapping to ecological & economic transformations, and the social importance given to marriage - all in the context of neofamilial national state politics where gender violence takes shape as unsanctioned rituals cast as ‘tradition’.

You better be as stressed as I am: Working men's mental health amidst workplace expectations for busyness.

In western societies, busy lifestyles that include long hours spent in paid employment are highly regarded. Given the ongoing primacy of men's roles as employees and providers, researchers need to understand men's mental health in terms of men's relationships to paid employment and expectations for "busyness". This study is an examination of if and how working men ascribe to workplace expectations for "busyness" and what mental health impacts these expectations can entail. We present a secondary analysis of narrative data drawn from three focus groups and 23 individual interviews with working men (n = 37) about work-related mental health. We found two themes of workplace expectations for busyness: 1) immediate manifestations and 2) background manifestations. Immediate manifestations are intensity and volume of work while background manifestations include a) unspoken messages and b) mixed messages. We found a third theme of 3) impacts of expectations for busyness and this includes a) busyness pride/costs of being "unbusy" and b) trade-offs in self-care. Obvious and subtle workplace expectations for busyness are abundant and may obstruct attending to one's mental health as well as contribute to a frame of reference where not being busy precipitates feelings of anxiety and depression.

Suicidal ideation among North Korean refugees in South Korea: Exploring the influence of social network characteristics by gender.

Rates of death by suicide among North Korean refugees are three times higher than those among their host-country counterparts in South Korea. However, social and cultural factors predicting suicidality among North Korean refugees are not well known. Thus, we explored how social networks affect suicidal ideation in a sample of 405 North Korean refugees in South Korea using egocentric network data. Network diversity (number of different types of ties) was a protective factor for suicidal ideation among women. Having a help-providing and trustworthy church-based tie was a protective factor for women, whereas it was a risk factor for men. It is likely that women connected to people in diverse social contexts received more support to effectively deal with adversities. Because South Korean churches provide tailored worship services and financial aid to North Korean refugees, women might receive emotional comfort from church-based ties whom they can trust and receive help from, whereas men might become distressed about being financially dependent on others, which contradicts cultural expectations of a man's traditional role. Our findings have implications for mental health practitioners serving vulnerable populations, and highlight the importance of understanding the cultural context of social networks and gender in suicide research.

Caregiving in Crisis: Fatherhood Refashioned by Sierra Leone's Ebola Epidemic.

In much of the literature on Sierra Leone, young men have been recognized for perpetrating violence or resisting authority. This characterization extended into the Ebola crisis, as young men were depicted as "resisting" public health measures. In contrast, little scholarship has focused on men's roles as caregivers during the epidemic. This article draws on ethnographic research conducted between 2014 and 2016 in eastern Sierra Leone to demonstrate how men contributed to caregiving. Findings reveal that when men were unable to care via established means, they improvised new ways to care for their families, which included: paid labor in Ebola treatment facilities; protecting their families from risk of infection; and hands-on nurturing. By focusing on these diverse types of male caregiving, this article challenges the ways in which "care" and "women" are often neatly linked and calls for a rethinking of stereotypes associating African men with violence.

Role of gender in perspectives of discrimination, stigma, and attitudes relative to cervical cancer in rural Sénégal.

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of female cancer deaths in Sénégal which is ranked 17th in incidence globally, however, the screening rate there is very low. Nuanced gendered perceptions and health behaviors of both women and men play a significant role in women's health. Our study analyzed gender differences on perceptions of gender roles, discrimination, cancer attitudes, cancer stigma, and influences in healthcare decision making within our study population to inform ongoing cervical cancer prevention work in the rural region of Kédougou, Sénégal. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 158 participants, 101 women and 57 men (ages 30-59) across nine non-probability-sampled communities from October 2018 through February 2019. Bivariate analysis was conducted to assess gender differences across all variables. We also conducted analyses to determine whether there were significant differences in beliefs and attitudes, by screening behavior and by education. We found significant gender differences regarding the perception of a woman's role (P < 0.001) and a man's role (P = 0.007) as well as in the everyday discrimination questions of "decreased respect by spouse" (P < 0.001). Regarding cancer stigma, among women, 18.00% disagreed and 10.00% strongly disagreed while among men, 3.6% disagreed and 1.8% strongly disagreed that "If I had cancer, I would want my family to know that I have it." When making decisions about one's healthcare, women are more likely than men to trust social contacts such as their spouse (46.5% vs 5.3%, p < 0.001) while men are more likely than women to trust health service personnel such as a nurse (50.9% vs 18.8%, p < 0.001). Furthermore, men and women were both more likely to state that men have the final decision regarding the healthcare decisions of women (p < 0.001). Our data reveal structural disadvantages for women within our study population as well as gender differences in the adapted everyday discrimination scale and cancer stigma scale. Higher rates of both personal and perceived cancer stigma among women has profound implications for how population and community level communication strategies for cancer prevention and control should be designed. Efforts to advance the goal of the elimination of cervical cancer should, in the short-term, seek to gain a more profound understanding of the ways that gender, language, and other social determinants impact negative social influences and other barriers addressable through interventions. Social and behavior change communication may be one approach that can focus both on education while seeking to leverage the social influences that exist in achieving immediate and long-term goals.

Stereotyped Roles for Men and Women in Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Discrimination against female draws to a great degree upon the tradition and tribal mentality. The role given to women is to be subordinated to men and be in the service of men and the family. Boys and men are allowed to dominate women in aspects of social life. This stereotypical role assigned to women, based on traditions and tribal mentality, involves not only accepting violence to be administered against women but prescribes even violence.CEDAW’s goal is to achieve equality between men and women to eradicate violence clashes with the local stereotype. CEDAW’s tools to bring about the needed changes have been to demand state party to it to translate their textual commitment to legal codes and practices. This paper examines the national legislation of Iraq and Kurdistan to point out the degree of subordination of local laws to CEDAWs Article 5. The findings of this paper are that Kurdistan has introduced important changes to the laws but in regard to child marriage it has not reached the international standards.

Rethinking masculinity in disaster situations: Men's reflections of the 2004 tsunami in southern Sri Lanka

The role of men in disasters is rarely discussed in depth and research on this topic is scarce. Yet, masculinity is an important dimension of disasters, whether considering men's active roles in disasters, their position within family relations pre- and post-disasters, or during reconstruction. The research project, Internationalising Institutional and Professional Practices conducted in 12 southern Sri Lankan villages sought to understand men's experiences of supporting their families after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It highlighted the importance of patriarchal relations and men's roles as providers throughout the disaster cycle. However, the picture is complicated. While most humanitarian aid is aimed at the generic person, a man, men do not have their needs as men specifically addressed during the receipt of humanitarian aid. Men who receive nothing post-disaster can become desperate, and misuse substances such as alcohol and drugs. This creates situations where men fight each other and abuse women and children within intimate relationships because the tsunami has destroyed their livelihoods and nothing has replaced these. In this article, I examine the complexities men navigate to understand their position when seeking to re-establish their connections to family and community life. I conclude that their specific needs as men require targeted interventions throughout all stages of the disaster cycle, and especially during the delivery of humanitarian aid if they are to fulfil their provider and protector roles and be steered away from behaviour that is abusive of close members of their families: wives, children, and other men.

Rationalizing gender inequality at scientific research organizations

PurposeIt is well-known that women scientists are few in numbers in prestigious research organizations and still fewer in leadership positions. The purpose of this article is to analyze how organizational gender inequality is rationalized by scientists so as to highlight how discourse on equality reproduces gender at the workplace.Design/methodology/approachData was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the scientists in four research laboratories dealing with medicinal drugs and chemical substances. It uses discourse analysis by Foucault as a theoretical lens to examine how gender inequality is rationalized and the power relations behind it. It adopts the perspective that socio-cultural beliefs form the basis of gendered practices in organizations.FindingsIt finds that the scientists refuse to blame the organization for inequalities by delinking gender issues from the organizational domain. This delinking occurs through rationalizing gender inequality as “social”, through separating informal behavior from the “system” and perceiving women as “privileged”. Such discourses while keeping intact the rationality and meritocracy of the organizations/institutions, reproduce the ideological “public-private dichotomy” and the male dominance at the workplace.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate the need for extensive studies in India highlighting how gender is done in organizations, exploring men's role in undoing gender and government initiatives to create a climate of gender equality.Originality/valueIt highlights how discourse on gender equality/inequality at the workplace manifests dominance of men and represents an intersection of Indian social, organizational and institutional contexts at workplace. It also calls into question the applicability of the western concepts of “individualization” and “gender fatigue” to the Indian context.

Zemlja, čovek, nebo - duhovni aspekti fizičkog vežbanja

New scientific discoveries in the quantum physics give us possibility in a new way to perceive the relation between physical exercise and the Christian theology of creation, in accordance with the basic hypotheses of the theoanthropocentric theory of the development of physical culture. Man's role in the world, especially in his motion, is to mediate, that is to be agent of connecting or bridge between the creation and its Creator. Motion is the reflection of human intellectual, emotional and spiritual condition, and body is a tool for the realization of harmony among them. It is therefore an instrument of love to God, in mutual giving and acceptance in which the field of all creation is actuated.

Good Fellows: Men's Role &amp; Reason in the Fight for Gender Equality

This essay attempts to make the case for including – even embracing – men in the fight for gender equality. I do not mean to argue that men should supplant women in this struggle, or that enlisting men implies dismissing or diminishing women. My aim instead is to make this fight less isolated and more practical, and to attack the so-called women's problem with a broader, blunter tool. If men believe in equality, then expanding that belief to explicitly include women is not a leap of logic or act of charity. It is instead a basic extension of a truth already deemed self-evident, and a channel through which men can begin to redefine their own identities and interests. Men have been an obstacle to women's equality for a very long time. Perhaps the moment has come to make them part of the solution as well.

Masculine gender role stress and self-stigma of seeking help: The moderating roles of self-compassion and self-coldness.

Many college men express stigma of seeking psychological help, possibly due to masculine gender role socialization proscribing help seeking. However, not every man who buys into restrictive masculine roles expresses self-stigma of seeking help, suggesting the presence of potential moderating variables. The present study examined self-compassion and self-coldness as potential moderating variables on the associations between men's masculine gender role stress and self-stigma of seeking help. College men (N = 777) were recruited via e-mail to participate in a brief online survey. Structural equation modeling revealed that masculine gender role stress was positively associated with self-stigma and self-coldness but was negatively associated with self-compassion. Both self-compassion and self-coldness were significant moderators. Men with low levels of self-compassion evidenced the strongest positive associations between masculine gender role stress and self-stigma, whereas men with low (but not high) self-coldness evidenced positive associations with self-stigma. These findings highlight differences between self-compassion and self-coldness and suggest that high levels of self-compassion may be a protective factor in reducing the associations between rigid masculinities and men's stigma of seeking help. By contrast, men with extremely negative and critical self-views may be likely to report stigma of seeking help regardless of their endorsement of rigid masculinities. Intervention and prevention implications include helping men enhance their self-compassion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

An intersectional mixed methods approach to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander men's health.

We used a convergent parallel design to explore NHPI men's multi-level perspectives of the factors that influence healthy eating, physical activity, and weight, to elicit recommendations for lifestyle interventions, and to understand the intersection of masculinity and health from a social constructionist perspective. From June to December 2017, NHPI men 18 years and older were recruited to participate in a survey and focus groups. The survey included demographic questions and questions about physical and cultural activities men engage in, perceived social support for lifestyle behaviors, dietary behaviors, masculine characteristics and values important to NHPI men. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was used to assess psychological distress. Focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed for a thematic analysis. Descriptive statistics were computed for survey data. We conducted eight focus groups with 89 NHPI men (50% Samoan, 20% Native Hawaiian, 30% Marshallese). The mean age of participants was 39 years, 43% reported some college or college graduate, 64% were currently married, and 63% were working full time. Ninety percent of men scored 20 or higher on the K10 scale indicating mild to severe psychological distress. Men described food as a major part of their culture and their identity. Men's roles were defined as provider and protector, with little attention is paid to their own health. Our study found that hegemonic, or traditional masculinity and social norms may encourage some men to put their health at risk but may also be used to motivate healthy behaviors.