The Non-Negotiables: Positive Masculinity
In October 2021, I wrote the 37th issue of this newsletter titled “I'm re-naming Design for Women —> Design for Men.” I think it my have led to most ever replies from you all, and the most ever replies from my male readers (which are few to begin with). I am almost certain that this was a key driver in ensuring that a theme such as “Positive Masculinities” be included in the Women-Centric Design Toolkit.
Positive masculinity (originally named “role of men”) encapsulates one core idea: Poor design for women affects everyone: it perpetuates negative masculinity while shrinking women. I don't think we can disagree. Here's what one male reader had responded to me back then which I think captures it well:
“I think it would be cool to have discussions about men because I can attest they are a mess, dangerous and in need of some serious maintenance. This is kind of overlooked because the bigger priority is addressing the long un-addressed and make up for centuries of inequality. But yeah... I think many men feel lost, scared, and angry, even with all their privilege. And that kind of scares me.”
What might this non-negotiable look like in practice? Ask yourself these few questions with regards to a project you might be working on today:
How does our solution reinforce masculine & feminine stereotypes? (What comes to mind when you think of how condoms are usually branded, or women's underwear?)
How does our solution place mental or physical labour burdens on women? (Why is fertility or reproductive health primarily women's focused?)
How could our solution also focus on men to balance out gendered roles? (In addition to “Women in STEM,” what about “Men in Care?”)
Re-reading our 37th issue and the conversations that followed, there was a foundational insight – when it comes to gender or women, some (of the nicest, well meaning) people just close their eyes and think it's not relevant to them. One of the ways that I have tried to shift this thinking is to say every project is a gender project and unless we see it that way, some of us will always have our eyes closed and progress will be hard.
Putting into practice
For our positive masculinity theme, here's the design consideration I wrote in our toolkit: Build ways to de-burden women by carving out roles for men and shift stereotypical masculinity and femininity narratives.
To put this in simple words: carve a role for men. Yes they have one. And if we don't do it, we'll just continue in our own gender bubble. Today I'm sharing a few of my favourite examples that do this well:
CyberRwanda: a youth-centric reproductive healthcare platform focuses equally on all genders, instead of catering just to women.
Pro Sport Development: gender-transformative sport programs which change the rules of the sport itself to ensure equal participation on the field rather than making it about “how to play” and who can play well.
MINE Condoms: a concept to increase women's agency to purchase & use condoms
Teaching household responsibilities as a skill: development organizations have implemented programming that promotes men and women sharing the responsibilities of income generation and caregiving to improve productivity and household well-being among farming families. The program resulted in increased women's participation in decision-making and farm management, and men spending more time on domestic tasks as compared to men in couples that did not receive the intervention.
A CEO of a non-profit focused on positive masculinity once said to me: It doesn't make sense to focus on women in STEM if we don't give the same attention to men in care. I love this. It makes me think about something I wrote in our Non-Linearity theme about LinkedIn – that today the platform deprioritises volunteer experiences (which can often be rooted in care). If men did more care work, I wonder if they would be prioritised.
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