Filipino men’s familial roles and domestic violence
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A report on the paper by Dr. Romeo B. Lee, as presented to AB555m Gender and Reproductive Health class under the MAHESOS program.
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Filipino men’s familial roles and domestic violence
- 1. Filipino men’s familial roles and domestic violence: implications and startegies for community based intervention Discussion on the paper by Prof. Romeo B. Lee Presented by Jerry Jose
- 2. Impetus • Men’s gender roles have contributed to family violence. • Consequences of the roles in the development of community – based programmes for men have not been given much attention.
- 3. Description of the subjects • 58 men from four communities – Community leaders and prominent local residents asked to refer friends and acquaintances. – Recruited whether known to be violent or not. • Criteria – Aged 20 years old or older – Married or cohabiting, living in the same household with their partner and children for at least a year • Low to middle income occupations • Half of the participants have less than 4 kids • All were Catholics
- 4. Methodology • Done in 10 months during 2000 in two moderately urbanised provinces where much work on women-centred domestic violence prevention had been going on for years • Data collection done on Saturday and Sunday afternoons • Modest incentives were given • Cognisant of the ethical dimensions regarding informed consent, confidentiality, quality control, closure and referrals for support as required
- 5. Methodology • Small scale qualitative examination of the familial context of Filipino men’s positions and roles, and their domestic violence experiences and attitude was carried out using eight focused group discussion. • Seven to eight members per FGD • Verbatim tape recorded transcripts analysis
- 6. FGD guide
- 7. Scope and intended results • May not be fully representative of the collective experiences and views of the Filipino male population, especially among those residing in the rural areas where most of the population lives • Findings may provide alternative perspectives which may inform the development of a socially sensitive approach to involving community-based Filipino men and facilitating behaviour change.
- 8. A male-based model for stopping domestic violence • Currently, this was not achievable given the observed official response - arrest and incarceration. • Support in terms of knowledge, attitudinal and skill reformation to underpin behavior change. • Community-based provision
- 9. Existing domestic violence interventions For women, children (Abused) • Programs mainly centered on awareness building; psychosocial support and emergency assistance • Place – crisis centeres, police stations, and NGOs, some at the community level For men (Abuser) • Arrest • Incarceration
- 10. Why a preferrence for CBA? • Reluctance to visit institutional health services. • Social care and support • Can change community wide norms, which underlie violence
- 11. Familial Roles of Men
- 12. Expectations with their women
- 13. Collaborative roles in creating happy families
- 15. Sources of Arguments and Triggers of Abuse
- 18. Discussion • At the helm of their families • Men, knowledgeable of and took responsibility for their gender roles exerting control over the focus and direction of all family affairs including the gender roles of their wives/partners. • Control –demonstrated facets of hegemonic masculinity such as sexual objectificaton and dominance. • Men construct their gender as one bearing or symbolising power and strength, and unexpectedly, one imbued with pride
- 19. Findings • Particularly sensitive to interventions aimed at reducing violence against women which will enquire into their private lives. – Direct challenge to their family leadership – Basis for losing face
- 20. Recommendations • Strategic male-sensitive approaches need to be crafted to attract participation and, subsequently, social support from a critical mass of community-based men • Programmes must employ neutral, nondisabling labels
- 21. Recommendations • Recognition of positive and negative dimensions of men will avoid demonisation fo men and affirm men’s goodnes while pointing on areas in which they can improve • Realize that men are not all the same
- 22. Recommendations • Interventions must first aspire to involve men separately from women and children – modification of men’s superior regard of themselves and their inferior regard of women – detach alcohol and drug abuse lifestyle and violent behaviours from the gender role prescription for men, and to introduce and attach alternative roles • Work with their wives/partners to unlearn traditional roles conducive to violence and to relearn alternative roles
Editor's Notes
- Filipino men are the sources of physical violence in 8 out of 10 cases of domestic v8iolence. The men centered efforts has taken placeonly in the last few years, after about 2 decades of domestic violence work.
- Recruited whether known to be violent or not, because it has been established that most men have the potential to be the sources of violence (Guerrero & Sobritchea 1997). Age limit was chosen to ensure better articulation of views and adequate life experience. Low to middle income occupations – Occupations included fishing, carpentry, driving, small-scale vending, office work, community work, military and police work, and teaching.
- The study took place over 10 months during 2000 in two moderately urbanised provinces where much work on women-centred domestic violence prevention had been going on for years Modest incentives such as T-shirts, a transportation allowance and food were extended to participants.
- The main language of the Philippines is Pilipino and English is widely spoken. The group activity involved gathering inside a community hall and school building for half a day (Box 1). Questions were devised from a third-person viewpoint to minimize embarrassing individuals who were not at ease with conveying personal experiences and insights in a group context. Discussants talked quite freely about their personal views and experiences. A male facilitator was assigned to each group to pose questions, ensure that the topics were thoroughly covered and to maintain focus of the discussion. Discussions took place in a local language. They were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated into English and then back-translated to the local language to check for inconsistencies. Analysis of the discussions entailed the reading of eight transcripts and summarising each transcript. Afterwards, the results were compared and organised according to topics using the accepted technique of thematic analysis. Several studies have used this method in examining violence and abuse (Reich 2002, Zink et al. 2003, Woodward & Stephen 2003). Findings were also translated from local languages into English, and were back-translated to ensure accuracy.
- Community based provision – Organization and implementation of group activities, such as workshops and seminars, would take place within the community, with residents as prime movers and beneficiaries.
- Programs are: Awareness building: advocacy; education and information dissemination; Psychosocial support counselling; gender sensitivity; family dialogure; Emergency assistance shelter, legal, police and medical assistance.
- Reluctance to visit institutional health services. Filipino men, like their European counterparts (Baker 2001), are reluctant to visit institutional health services, let alone other facilities within which to discuss an incriminating topic like domestic violence. Social care and support. A critical mass of community-based men, including those reformed from their violent behaviour, is essential to develop a broad base of social care and support with alternative male role models. Can change community wide norms, which underlie violence. Personal efficacy for change will be enhanced if interventions are introduced at the heart of the community, wherein they also stand a chance of bringing change to community-wide norms which underlie violence.
- The men involved in the study were at the helm of their families, appropriately mirroring the cultural tradition of patriarchy in the Philippines, as in Indonesia (Sciortino 1998) and Africa (International Planned Parenthood Federation 1996). Data from the 1990 Census underscores the predominance of male leadership in the household: 88.7% of the total household heads were Filipino men (National Statistical Coordination Board 1995, p. 17). Men were leaders in many ways, with authority vested upon them by the larger society, either by convention or through legal means. Labour sector: more men than women were working (82 versus 48%). More men than women were members of Parliament (88 versus 12%) (Lee & Dodson 1998). Responsibilities of Men Provide economic support Discipline children Their lifelong exercise of leadership and hegemonic masculinity in their respective families, along with varied perpetuating societal and social conditions, caused men to construct their gender as one bearing or symbolising power and strength, and unexpectedly, one imbued with pride.
- Men’s traditional position of general power, dominance and privilege in their respective families means that they will be particularly sensitive to interventions which will be seen to enquire into their private lives because of possible legal consequences if their roles as abusers becomes known. Intervention could be seen as a direct challenge to their household leadership, identity, and control of family members and activities, especially if the intervention takes place in a group or public activity. Publicly, most Filipino men are averse to ‘losing face’. It is severely damaging to their gender identity and pride because there is a community expectation for men to be in control and dominant. Men ‘losing face’ are likely to be agitated. The present study revealed that, even in the privacy of their home, men disliked their authority to be challenged, to the point that it could lead to familial conflict and violence. Interveners must be aware of the incongruence between men’s status as household heads and their status as sources of violence. The incongruence arises because their household authority is left largely unquestioned while they have to submit to programmes requiring them to own their violent behaviour and change their conduct. Lack of sensitivity to this incongruence is bound to result in inappropriate, socially insensitive interventions. A national report has already outlined the low level of men’s participation in community-based reproductive health activities because approaches were socially and personally degrading (Lee & Dodson 1998).
- First, strategic male-sensitive approaches need to be crafted to attract participation and, subsequently, social support from a critical mass of community-based men. Actively screening potential participants for evidence of violent behaviours may be counter-productive. Identifying individual men as sources of violence and making this a prerequisite for involvement will result in negative labelling and stigmatisation in the community, and possibly, potential arrest and incarceration. Gossip about men’s experience of this kind is certain to go around the community, derailing the formation of a critical mass of men in any intervention activity aimed at changing views and behaviour. Secondly, programmes must employ neutral, nondisabling labels; for example, rather than describing participants as ‘violent men’, the term should be ‘men with violent behaviour’. In the present study, the term ‘sources of violence’ replaced the commonly used terms ‘perpetrators’ or ‘abusers’. The research team’s use of the neutral phrase, coupled with sensitive recruitment, helped construct a research environment conducive to participants, so that, despite the lack of prompts, many reported their experiences of family-based violence. As a neutralising technique, this avoids agitating participants and ensures that they will be calm, with their minds open for modification. Besides neutral words, the avoidance of hostile slogans (International Planned Parenthood Federation 1996), blame and moralising are related options (Lee & Dodson 1998).
- Thirdly, interventions must not concentrate on men’s questionable behaviours alone. The findings demonstrated that men’s familial position and roles could be positive as well as influencing their violent tendencies. Recognition of these positive and negative dimensions will avoid the demonisation of men and affirm men’s goodness while pointing out areas in which they can improve. Men with violent behaviour also possessed attributes which can serve as a springboard to behaviour change. For example, many were believers in God, and were aware of the requirements for creating successful familial and spousal relationships. More crucially, many recognized the need to solve domestic violence and many agreed that violent behaviour could be changed. Thus, interventions should start on a positive note that fosters an enabling environment for men in contrast to the prevailing intervention technique that begins with the questioned behaviour. Fourthly, those responsible for interventions must realize that men are not all the same. On the one hand, there were men who argued against their wives’ assumption of the economic role; on the other, there were men who had no problem with it. Some men appreciated the victim’s feelings; others felt that they had the right to hurt their wife/partner or children, or thought that the problem of violence could be solved if women submitted to their husbands. Variations in men’s perceptions and experiences show that the male population is not homogenous (United Nations Population Fund 1995). Recognition of variations precludes generalisations about men and may guide the development of appropriate strategies. Herein lies an opportunity for social and role modelling, a bridging process to the organization of a critical mass of men.
- Fifthly, because men experience the familial world from a leadership and hegemonic angle, interventions must first aspire to involve men separately from women and children. The familial position of men and their needs in domestic violence prevention are distinct from those of the victims. Men are likely to be defensive, too proud to admit to and accept their violent and lifestyle behaviour in public. This will be even more problematic if they have to concede ground to those who they regard as subordinates responsible in part for their violence. A power struggle between the sources and receivers of violence will undermine intervention activities. Nevertheless, interventions must eventually prepare men to face their victims by minimising unnecessary inter-gender conflicts. The priority challenge in this respect concerns the modification of men’s superior regard of themselves and their inferior regard of women. Challenging the centrality of such perceptions is critical since the overwhelming body of evidence and the present findings have underlined the connection between gender roles and domestic violence. In addition, it is necessary to tackle associated factors such as alcohol and drug use (Heise 1997). A three-city survey of more than 3000 Filipino men found that alcohol and marijuana use was indeed common (80–90% had used them) (Jimenez & Lee 2001). There is no doubt that the expression of physical violence is also a normative role for men. Therefore, the crux of gender role modification must aspire to detach these lifestyle and violent behaviours from the gender role prescription for men, and to introduce and attach alternative roles. In lieu of their violent response, men can be taught other behavioural options: for example, to communicate effectively with family members and to use non-violent means of settling conflicts. Men’s personal efficacy to unlearn traditional roles conducive to violence and to relearn alternative roles can be enhanced if they later work together with their wives/partners or other family members. The literature has raised conjoint treatment of couples as an alternative to individual treatment (Greenspun 2000, Jory & Anderson 2000). Domestic violence has marked relational aspects. While this violence relates to male domination, there is a possibility that it involves couples in mutual conflict (Greene & Bogo 2002). Men need support in rectifying their violent propensities. That support must provide men with a socially and culturally sensitive environment for their behavioural transformation as a basis for a safe and caring community for women and children.