AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

15 Reimagining Reproductive Health Interventions 173
WHY WORKING WITH MEN IS IMPORTANT AND WHY WORKING AROUND
MEN IS NOT EFFECTIVE
Men were of little interest in the family planning and RH field for a long
time, being left out of research and assumed to have minimal roles in
fertility decisions and behavior. Most programs and interventions had
women at the center as primary caregivers and child bearers, as well the
main actors in reproductive decision-making. Men were seen as having
uneducated and irresponsible behavior regarding fertility control, blocking
female contraception, being sexually promiscuous, and underinvesting
in their children’s lives (Greene 2000). In general, programs
operated in a normative fashion, believing male resistance to family
planning and SRH to be an unchanging fact. Such an attitude reinforced
men’s non-involvement, permitting men to be disengaged from reproductive
activities (ibid.). But sharing SRH information and contraception
through gender-specific channels will never address problems of unplanned
pregnancies, HIV/AIDS infection, and STIs that affect and
devastate the lives of both men and women (AGI 2003: 7). For instance,
HIV/AIDS can never be tackled without researching and understanding
the sexual behavior of men; high incidences of sexual violence towards
women will not be adequately understood or handled without understanding
the perpetrators and digging down into the root causes for such
violence. Unwanted and high-risk pregnancies and their possible outcomes
of dangerous abortions and the need for ante-natal care will never
be controlled if the decision-making locus involving strong culturallydefined
gender relations is not understood and adopted as part of the
framework of SRH programs (Dixon-Mueller & Germain 2000: 73).
Understanding that reproduction is a stratified social process, not just
a biological act is central to understanding that SRH programs must involve
both men and women. The decisions surrounding reproduction lie
within a social context involving individuals who live with the reality of
inequalities based on gender and class. Men and women live in socioeconomic
climates full of uncertainties; they live in cultures that many
times define their roles as men and women. The reality of difficult political
and economic climates make it difficult for such notions of being a
‘real man’ or a ‘real woman’ to actually be attained (Keysers 2009a).
Men’s ‘irresponsible’ or ‘disinterested’ behavior towards SRH is not
something that is static: behaviors are contextual and not necessarily biological
and unchanging. Therefore, men’s risky behaviors must be under-