WHAT WOMEN LIBERATION DOES TO THE MENTAL HEALTH OF MEN

Recent years have witnessed significant awareness on the issues of gender and human rights in standard setting and to some extent application of those standards through international and domestic legislation and jurisprudence, and in institutional programming and development. Some international and regional human rights bodies now go beyond just including women in a list of vulnerable groups, and have begun to incorporate women’s experiences and perspectives into recommendations for structural changes needed to bring about file enjoyment of human rights by women and girls. Despite this progress, many challenges remain. Domestic violence appears to be on the increase as tensions rise in the global economic crisis. Gender based discrimination persists in the work-place,  housing, education, disaster relief, political life, inheritance ,health care, access to food, and countless  other areas.

Access to justice continues to be hindered by a range of obstacles, including restrictions in some countries on freedom of movement, discounting of evidence given by women and lack of training of prosecutors. Religion, tradition and culture continue to be used as   shield for violating women’s rights, despite, strong and persistent statements adopted by states in United Nations’ fora that they are not a valid justification for such violations. This brief presentation of problems usually from the academic, civil rights groups and most reports from our international developmental agencies may illustrate some of the problems but the paradigm adopted in tackling these culture-sensitive issues may be flawed. Gender refers to the socially – constructed differences between men and women as distinct from sex which refers to their biological differences. In all societies, men and women play different roles, have different needs and face different constraints. Gender roles differ from the biological roles of men and women although they may overlap. These roles demarcate responsibilities between men and women in social and economic activities, access to resources and decision making authority. These roles can and do shift with social, economic and technological change.

In essence, the very substrate that gives definition to gender is the culture. Gender is the cultural value ascribed to the biological differences ascribed to men and women. This paradigm is very crucial in understanding gender issues and proffering solutions to them. The world over, people generally think that they perceive reality and approach problem solving in a way that is objective, accurate and culture-free. The survey of the history of development theory shows that western economists propose interventions from their sociocultural, historical and economic realities in their countries to interpret evidence.  This mismatch between their analysis and the reality make for some bad policy especially in a good number of our developmental programs because intervention should have a cultural paradigm to be effective.Pre-colonial Africa was a patriarchal society with rigidly defined authoritarian roles for men and supportive roles for women.  However with the advent of colonialism and globalization of values; gender roles are changing with strong implications for our mental health. Our women for instance are no longer passive merely supportive partners in the marital relationship but strong contributors. This has had a profound implication for marital relationships with attendant challenges on the mental health of the husbands especially as their traditional autocratic roles are being challenged because women are gainfully employed hence more financially independent with robust social capital. Older men in retirement are lonelier as their wives move from one continent to the other to nurse their grandchildren.

Harmonious leadership roles are disrupted as the men become incapable of coordinating the family life because women are getting more empowered and less adapting. The children suffer from this gender warfare as they grow up in an atmosphere of discordant authority voices.

Contemporary advocacy from the western world overemphasize the discrimination against women without considering a subtle but profound incapacitation of manhood in the developing countries. A good number of our men suffer from depressive illness masked by alcoholism, abuse of psychoactive drugs, erectile dysfunction just as they develop high blood pressure mostly before 40 years. The challenge to sustain leadership by being financially buoyant to survive the emotional combat may be responsible.

There is increased marital conflict characterized by gender violence especially when men get frustrated by the challenge posed by their combative modern wives. Some of the men carry their reservations about women into the work place and entrench the campaign of gender discrimination as they seek to disempower women by blocking their promotion, refusing to encourage their education once married or outright sexual abuse of women subordinates. The ultimate resolution of this gender warfare cannot take place unless our cultural values are interrogated so that our gender conventions and declarations can be creatively domesticated. Reckless challenge of the existing cultural values from a purely western paradigm can only worsen the existing gender discrimination with attendant mental health challenges.