Gender influences on child survival, health and nutrition: a ... - Unicef

<strong>Gender</strong> Influences On Child Survival, Health And Nutrition: A Narrative Review
Box 7 Men and child care
A small number of studies have identified gendered beliefs and perceptions that influence men’s
caring roles. For example Roopnarine et al (1995) and Hossain et al (2005) show how men are
more likely to engage in play with their children than in other forms of child care, such as feeding
or cleaning. This is linked to perceptions that women are more ‘suited’ to the daily tasks of
maintaining household members, but more positively, also suggests that men are engaging in
useful aspects of child care in terms of children’s psychological growth and well being.
Researchers have also explored the potential for men to become more involved in key child care
practices. For example a study undertaken in an urban suburb in Tanzania which involved
interviews with ten new fathers attending reproductive and child health clinics with their partners
found that these men were challenging traditional gender roles by contributing to household
chores and care of their children (Mbekenga et al. 2011). The authors highlighted that there is
often a lack of resources available for fathers concerned about their family’s health and yet
excluded from reproductive and child health services conventionally focused solely on women.
A review of studies of men’s involvement in health (Barker et al. 2003) highlights the lack of research on
men’s roles and responsibilities and draws on findings from the small number of existing studies to
identify some of the constraints men experience in fulfilling their gendered responsibilities as fathers
and married men. For example, there is evidence to suggest that young men experience considerable
anxiety about their role as financial provider of young children, and yet very few programmes have
examined the multiple roles of fathers, neither do they “promote greater involvement by fathers in child
care and maternal health” (p. 12). A study investigating the determinants of immunisation uptake for
children aged 12-18 months found that fathers’ involvement in decision-making was linked to a higher
rate of completion (odds ratio = 5.7, 95% confidence interval [Cl]: 1.5-21.7) which suggests that positive
results can be reaped through involving men in child health care provision 15 (Brugha, Kevany & Swan
1996).
The analysis of men’s roles by Barker et al. also suggests that the framing of men’s lack of involvement
with their children as “irresponsibility” does not recognise the complexity of men’s experiences (Barker
et al. 2003). For example, the degree of fathers’ involvement with and provision for their children may
be influenced by their life stage. Research from the Caribbean exploring patterns of fatherhood from
adolescence through to adulthood demonstrates qualitatively that young fathers may often prioritise
their own needs when spending their income and in many cases father children in their adolescence as a
way of “establishing their manhood” even without the means to support children. However at a later
stage in life, these same men may exchange their temporary alliances for more permanent unions with
female partners and go on to “devote considerable resources to “inside children” —those with whom
they currently reside” (Brown & Chevannes, 1998 cited in Barker et al 2003: 13). This does not however
15 This finding was only true for men who spoke English and neither factors (men’s participation or their ability to
speak English) was associated independently with children’s immunisation status. The authors suggest that where
fathers have a higher rate of education, programmes designed to include them in child health services may
experience greater success in timely immunisation.
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