(CARICOM Today) On Monday, 9 September 2019, the first of five country workshops under the theme “Rethinking Masculinity, Understanding Gender Equality as a Means of Ending Gender-Based Violence in Caribbean Schools” opened in Trinidad and Tobago under the auspices of the CARICOM Secretariat, with support from the European Union’s 10th EDF Crime and Security CARIFORUM Project, and the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs), Trinidad and Tobago. This initial workshop will last for two days at the Office of the Parliament, Trinidad and Tobago.
The workshops result from recommendations emanating from a Youth, Masculinity and Violence Report which was commissioned by the CARICOM Secretariat in 2012, in which 1,000 students, ages 15-21 years, along with their parents and teachers, were surveyed in five CARICOM Member countries namely, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The study identified several areas of concern, among them: dominant forms of masculinity appear to be operating not ‘along with’ but at the expense of other forms such as:
- Boys are being forced to conform with societal expectations or risk being labelled and ridiculed from peers as well as critical adult groups;
- Aggression and physical violence continue to be viewed as ‘normal’ male behavior while similar behavior from females is viewed negatively;
- Harmful beliefs exist among young males regarding the treatment of women and girls and manifest themselves in a variety of…
