By Estelle Loiseau and Carolin Beck, Policy analysts, OECD Development Centre.
What does it mean to be a “real” man? This complex question opens up a conversation about masculinities: those shared beliefs about how men – and women – should behave, often deeply ingrained within societies. These notions vary over time, place, and cultures, and can either support gender equality or uphold patriarchal norms that limit women’s rights and opportunities and restrict the potential of men and women alike.
The Impact of Restrictive Masculinities
The OECD Development Centre has identified ten widely accepted norms of restrictive masculinities that hinder gender equality and impact men’s well-being and health. Examples of restrictive masculinities include expectations for men to be the ultimate decision-makers at home or work and to be the primary breadwinners, while more gender-equitable ones include norms that value both men and women as potential caretakers in the home.
Communicators can use this framework to illustrate how social norms affect gender equality outcomes in a country, providing context-specific examples. This approach is essential for raising awareness about the negative effects of restrictive masculinities on society and women in particular. It also emphasises the importance of measuring how these norms evolve, documenting stories of change at community level, and highlighting successful programmatic interventions.
For instance, Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth applied the masculinities framework to its data, revealing that 52% of the Irish population believes a woman’s most important role is to care for her home and family, while 39% think a man’s most important role is earning money. These findings were shared on social media and are now informing the government’s gender policy.
Key Findings from the Data
Since 2009, the OECD Development Centre has measured the formal and informal laws and social norms determining what women and men can do through the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). Data indicate a troubling trend towards more restrictive norms. Between 2014 and 2022, biases against women’s economic empowerment worsened. In 2022, 35% of the global population[1] believed that when a woman earns more than her husband, it causes problems, a 6 percentage point (p.p.) increase from 2014. Similarly, in 2022, 45% of the population thought men should have more rights to jobs when they are scarce (a 4 p.p. increase) and 56% thought children suffer when a mother works for pay (a 5 p.p. increase).
Data also show a trend of more discriminatory views among younger populations. A 2024 report by the Haut Conseil à l’Égalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes in France found that 25% of men aged 25-34 believe violence is sometimes necessary to gain respect. The Reykjavík Index for Leadership found that young people in G7 countries have more negative views than their parents regarding women’s suitability for leadership roles.
Researchers and data providers need development communicators to ensure policymakers and the public are aware of these facts. Without this awareness, appropriate policy responses and corrective measures cannot be taken, and civil society cannot effectively put pressure on their governments for change.
The Need for More Data
Global data on masculinities remain scarce, making it challenging to understand how social norms evolve and how they affect women’s empowerment. Development communicators can advocate for greater investment in data to track changes over time, including capacity-building at the national level in data management. This includes data on gender norms to fill data gaps, and mainstreaming gender across government sectors.
Communicators can highlight projects that aim at closing data gaps and show how high-quality data on masculinities supports policy change. For example, the OECD Development Centre, in collaboration with the Austrian Development Agency, is starting to pilot data collection on masculinities in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The goal is to understand the dominant norms in these countries and their impact on violence against women and women’s economic empowerment, generating ideas for policies that promote gender equality.
Communicating effectively on Masculinities
To limit the backlash against progress for women, it is crucial to emphasise that gender equality benefits everyone. Campaigns should engage men and boys, possibly through male celebrities or influencers who champion gender equality. Highlighting the benefits of shifting away from traditional gender roles for men’s well-being and mental health, as well as for women’s achievements, is key.
The #inFAIRness campaign in the Philippines, mentioned in the SIGI 2024 Regional Report for Southeast Asia: Time to Care, engages men as advocates for women’s economic empowerment. Similarly, gender norm campaigns in Côte d’Ivoire, using local radio and mobile phone videos, have successfully shifted attitudes recognising the importance of both parents’ involvement in early childhood education and care.
For campaigns to succeed, they must be anchored in the local context, using language and concepts that resonate with specific communities. Development communicators need to understand local variations in norms of masculinities, requiring more data and research. Researchers, in turn, need communicators to make compelling arguments for obtaining this data. By working together, we can effectively promote gender equality and support societal progress.
[1] Depending on the statement, data are calculated over a sample of 36 or 37 countries for which data are available for both consecutive waves 6 and 7 of the World Values Survey, which correspond to the periods 2010-14 and 2017-22, respectively. These countries account for 50% of the population aged 18 years and more.