CONTENTS
Chapters
- New Attention to Men
- Men Make a Difference
- New Survey Findings About Men
- Gender and Reproductive Behavior
- Couple Communication
- Lessons Learned and Program Implications
HIGHLIGHTS
Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland
21202-4012, USA
Volume XXVI, Number 2
October, 1998
Series J, Number 46 |
An Evolution in Thinking
New perspectives on men come from an evolution in thinking about reproductive health rather
than from a revolution in attitudes. Interest in men has waxed and waned over the past several
decades (9, 90). Although reproductive health programs have never given as much emphasis to
men as to women, in the 1980s many began workplace programs and condom social marketing to
reach out to men (90, 203). These programs, which have continued in the 1990s, often have
increased condom use among some key groups of men (81, 197).
Many providers and program designers have concluded that neglecting men and their
reproductive health is a losing strategy with adverse consequences for both men and women (63,
100, 221). As a result, interest in and commitment to involving men in reproductive health has
intensified during the 1990s. The reasons for more attention to men include:
- Growing concern about the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, such
as chlamydia and gonorrhea (4, 100,
157 , 286);
- Evidence of the ill effects of some men's risky sexual behavior on
the health of women and children (29, 61,
157, 202,
222);
- Survey findings that many men approve of family planning (72, 76, 213);
- Greater recognition that in many cultures men make decisions that
affect women's reproductive health as well as their own (53, 157
, 202);
- Increasing awareness that gender—men's and women's differing social
roles and the power associated with these roles—affects sexual behavior,
reproductive decision-making, and reproductive health in many different
ways (171, 187, 202,
292);
- Demands from female health care clients that men become more involved and included in family
planning and other reproductive health care (57, 153, 273).
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo,
representatives from more than 180 countries formally recognized the importance of men to
women's reproductive health and also recognized the importance of men's own reproductive
health (25, 106, 228, 251, 259). The ICPD Program of Action urges all countries to provide men,
as well as women, with reproductive health care that is "accessible, affordable, acceptable, and
convenient" (251).
The ICPD Program of Action encourages reproductive health care programs to move away from
considering men and women separately and to adopt a more holistic approach that includes men
and focuses on couples. It also draws attention to the unfairness inherent in many men's and
women's gender roles, calling for men to take more responsibility for household work and
child-rearing (251). Similarly, the report of the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference
on Women, held in Beijing, encourages men to take steps toward achieving gender equality and
better reproductive health (252). |
