ILO ISSUE BRIEF

ENGAGING MEN IN WOMEN’S ECONOMIC

EMPOWERMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS
AN ILO-WED ISSUE BRIEF
1

Highlights from the brief:

◗◗ The importance of engaging men -at the household, community and policy levels- in
interventions on women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and women’s entrepreneurship
development (WED) is gaining increasing recognition amongst development practitioners.
◗◗ Existing interventions seeking to engage men in WEE and WED have either targeted
men as “gatekeepers” to gender equality or as potential agents of change in challen-
ging established gender norms.
◗◗ Good practices of engaging men in WEE and WED include: carrying out gender as-
sessments; providing capacity-building activities encouraging men to adopt positive
masculinities; inviting men to the trainings targeting women; combining single-sex and
mixed activities; identifying and supporting gender champions; campaigning.
◗◗ There is room for more implementation and scaling up of interventions engaging men
in WEE and WED. Better monitoring and evaluation of interventions is essential to
inform future programming.

1 - This issue brief is based on a first version developed by Mary E. Robbins, a gender and development consultant and
researcher specialized in women’s economic empowerment and engaging men and boys. Amélie Duval, ILO-WED junior
technical officer, provided the final substantive contributions and edits with guidance from Virginia Rose-Losada and Sara
Cavallo from the ILO-WED programme. Invaluable inputs were provided to previous drafts by Gary Barker, Aletheia Donald,
Nathalie Guilbert, Racheal Pierroti and Hilde Wallacher.

1
Introduction
Female-run businesses are steadily increas- of actively engaging men in gender equality.
ing in number all over the world. According Researchers working on these topics have
to the World Bank, there are about 8 million underlined the importance of engaging
to 10 million formal small and medium en- men towards gender equality, and of going
terprises with at least one female owner in beyond a gender-sensitive approach, that
developing countries. Women are making recognizes the specific needs and realities
significant contributions to national econ- of men based on the social construction
omies, contributing to poverty reduction of gender roles, towards a gender-trans-
and employment creation. The potential of formative one (Barker, 2007). Gender
women entrepreneurship development is transformative programs seek to transform
attracting more and more attention from in- gender roles and promote more gender-
ternational organizations, governments, and equitable relationships between men and
international development stakeholders. women. They recognize the complexity and
fluidity of gender identities, and the fact that
Despite this growing momentum, women men can also benefit from gender equality.
around the world still face discrimination
and gender barriers that prevent them from Men can indeed benefit from greater gen-
unleashing their full economic potential. In der equality, as for example the pressure
order to promote greater gender equality, of being the main breadwinner of the
economic empowerment and entrepreneur- household is lifted and they build healthier
ship development interventions have thus relationships with their wives and children.
focused on women, hoping to challenge the Moreover, they have a role to play in wom-
gender norms that put them at an economic en’s economic empowerment. In a world in
disadvantage in comparison with men. which they often still benefit from what R.
W. Connell called the “patriarchal dividend2”,
Entrepreneurship development programs
they can act as real gatekeepers towards the
that target women are sometimes failing to
implementation of greater gender equality,
promote sustainable gender equality (Keonig
by helping their female family members to
et al., 2003). Because of the complexity of
access resources that are essential to their
gender identities and relationships, they may
economic empowerment or the start-up and
sometimes even lead to negative impacts on
growth of their businesses.
their beneficiaries. For example, Women’s
Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Enterpre- The purpose of this issue brief is to explore
neurship Development (WED) interventions the issue of men’s engagement in interven-
may sometimes lead to an increase in gen- tions focusing on WEE and WED.
der-based violence from husbands and male
household members (Ahmed, 2005). This Questions guiding this brief were the
type of response from men can stem from following:
a feeling that women’s economic empower-
◗◗ How can and have men been involved
ment and greater financial independence are
in these types of interventions?
a threat to their masculinity and/or the status
◗◗ What are some good practices that can
quo that favours them.
be reproduced in future programming?
This highlights the importance of better ◗◗ And finally, what are future areas that
understanding men and masculinities, and need to be considered and explored?

2 - The patriarchal dividend refers to the advantage that all men have in a society that, openly or otherwise, favours males, maleness
or masculinity (Connell, 2013 in Sweetman, 2013).

2
Most of the evidence and research on implemented in Africa, though the limit-
men’s engagement in development in- ed evidence has led us to include some
terventions aiming to promote gender interventions from other countries in the
equality has been around health-related Global South3.
issues, for example on HIV/AIDS preven-
tion or on gender-based violence. Rigorous This brief will seek out to draw good prac-
evaluations of WED interventions engaging tices from both the existing literature on
men are few. However, a few cases of eval- men’s engagement in gender equality and
uations of projects attempting to engage specific interventions aiming to empow-
men and boys in WEE interventions do er women economically and to develop
exist, and will be referred to below. The women’s entrepreneurship, and to make
main focus of this brief will be on projects recommendations for future interventions.

Approaches to engaging men in

women’s economic empowerment and
entrepreneurship development
From the existing literature and intervention the likeliness of women crossing over to
evaluations on engaging men in WEE and male-dominated sectors. It also showed that
WED, three levels of interventions can be these crossover firms outperformed others
identified. The different approaches to en- in traditional female sectors, both in terms
gaging men at the household, community of profits and size of firms by the number
and policy levels are detailed below. of employees (Alibhai et al., 2015). Crosso-
ver firms were indeed more likely to report
Engaging men at the family and having started their business due to an op-
portunity provided by their husband, while
household level. a father’s occupation seemed to have a strong
Some programs have set out to involve men influence on a woman’s likelihood of crossing
as direct support in their wives or female rel- over, thanks to them providing start-up funds
ative’s economic empowerment or business. for a business or initiating introductions to
This approach aims to take advantage of the contacts in male-dominated industries.
skills, knowledge and networks that male
family members have to support their female Another way to involve men in their wives
relative’s economic empowerment. or female relatives’ business is to invite male
family members and husbands to business
Male family members can act as economic related trainings targeting women. This can
empowerment “gatekeepers” for women, by help them understand what their household
giving them access to capital, information, and has to gain from their wives’ businesses and
networks that would otherwise remain out of how they can support them. In a project
their reach because of context-specific gender delivering gender and business training for
barriers. A study conducted by the Gender female clients of a microfinance institution in
Innovation Lab in 2014 in Uganda showed northern Vietnam over a period of 9-month
the crucial role of fathers and husbands in (Vu et al., 2015), husbands were invited to

3 - Africa was identified as the main region of preference given ILO’s current work in women’s entrepreneurship development
and engaging men within an IrishAid funded project in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Additionally there is little work in Latin
America and Asia that evaluate the impact of involving men in WEE or WED.

3
join the training – especially its gender mod- ceptance of intimate partner violence of all
ules. The results of an impact assessment women in the study.
showed that involving men had some pos-
itive impacts from a business perspective: it Other interventions have led to a more gender
led to more sales and profits and a higher equal division of tasks inside the household,
number of start-ups. From a gender perspec- where men take on some of women’s domes-
tive, it also led to less relational frictions in tic responsibilities such as household chores
the household, and had a positive impact of or parenting.
female decisions about important purchases.
One of the reasons that women entrepreneurs
In order to engage men in WEE and WED do not perform as well as male entrepreneurs
interventions, some programs have directly is because they are often the sole care-giver
targeted family members and husbands with in the household: they are responsible for
specific trainings aiming at challenging estab- taking care of other family members and
lished gender norms. The goal is to encourage domestic chores. This not only means that
mutual understanding between household they do not have as much time as their male
members and behavioural change for men counterparts to devote to their businesses,
to support their wives, or other female rel- but also that they invest more financially in
atives in their economic empowerment or household well-being than men do on aver-
their business creation. The promotion of age. There is some evidence that micro-credit
positive masculinities can lead to the creation loans do not benefit female businesses as it
of healthier relationships, and a more gender does male businesses because the money
equal division of tasks. ends up being diverted to the household in-
stead of the business (ILO-WED, 2015).
The primary goal of some interventions
seeking to engage men has been to decrease For example, a Village Savings and Loans in-
gender-based violence. For example, the aim tervention in Rwanda in 2012, implemented
of a project implemented by the International by CARE Rwanda (Slegh et al., 2013), deliv-
Rescue Committee in Côte d’Ivoire in 2010 ered a training for men including structured
(Gupta et al., 2014) was to economically em- group discussion and training activities on
power women beneficiaries of Village Saving business skills and health and well-being
Loans Associations and to reduce intimate (including sessions focusing on negotiation
partner violence in 24 villages affected by and decision-making between women and
conflict in rural north and northwest Côte men and a cycle of workshops in household
d’Ivoire. Half of the groups in each partici- activities). The qualitative evaluation from
pating village took part in Gender Dialogue the intervention indicated that patterns of
Groups during which women and their sharing care work had changed. One man
spouses were brought together to reflect on said: “I learned that I can do women’s work,
how economic decisions were made within and my wife can do man’s work” (p23) and
the household, the characteristics of a suc- other participants reported increased sharing
cessful household and guided through steps of domestic tasks.
to develop mutually respectful and nonviolent
spousal dynamics. Following the combined
interventions, women reported a significant Engaging men at the community
reduction in intimate partner violence within level.
the last year, reduced economic abuse4 from
their partners and an overall alteration of Gender roles and identities play out not only
attitudes regarding the justification and ac- at the individual and household level, they

4 - Economic abuse was measured with three indicators: 1. A partner taking a woman’s money against her will, 2. A partner refusing
money for household necessities and 3. A partner obliging a woman to give part or all her money to him.

4
are also inscribed and enacted in the wid- those men as change agents to reach other men
er community and society. For sustainable in the community and to change community
change in terms of engaging men in WED, it norms (Slegh et al., 2013, p23). An example of
is essential to promote gender equality and such an intervention is the one carried out by
women’s economic empowerment at the CARE Burundi and other partners to support
community level. the Abatangumaco group (Wallacher, 2012). Its
origin is a group of rural Burundian men who
Community campaigns to raise awareness had begun to question their traditional way
at the local level can be a strong tool to of life, and more specifically their practices
change gender attitudes and behaviours at of domestic abuse, economic violence, and
the community level. An intervention led unequal share of the burden of work. Collab-
by the Brazilian NGO Instituto Promundo oration between these men and CARE Burundi
in 2012-2013 included group education and led to building the organizational structure of
community engagement for women enrolled the group and to design its outreach activi-
in the conditional cash transfer program Bol- ties. Though this community-based movement
sa Familia and their male family members does not focus on women’s economic empow-
to help address wider issues of women’s erment but more on gender-based violence
economic empowerment and positively en- and gender equality in general, it seeks to
gage men as to transform traditional gender engage men in questioning traditional gender
norms and support women’s economic par- norms and practices. Men from the group talk
ticipation and growth (Veras Soares & Silva, to other men through public interactions or
2010). After following bi-weekly gender-ed- peer-to-peer interventions. Identifying male
ucation sessions for five months, male and gender equality champions –individuals or
female participants were required to devel- groups- and empowering them to engage with
op a community campaign with messages other men and promote gender equality is a
around what they had learned as a means powerful way to encourage sustainable change
of sensitizing all community members. Using for gender equality.
flyers, banners and pamphlets, the communi-
ty campaign was disseminated near football
pitches, the Residents Association, restau-
Engaging men at the policy level.
rants and other public spaces reaching more The evidence regarding involving men in WEE
than 5,000 community members. The cam- and WED interventions at the policy level is
paign also included organizing social events not yet very well developed. This also stems
like football, bingo and a theatre show. This from the fact that interventions focusing on
type of intervention not only allows for the engaging men are still scarce and not up to
dissemination of messages promoting more scale (Barker et al., 2007). There is however
positive masculinities, but it also leads men some evidence that even if laws promoting
to take ownership of what they have learned gender equality are in place, their impact in
through the training. reality can be very limited (Sweetman, 2013).
Hence the need for policies which promote
To promote gender equality at the commu-
positive masculinities and men’s support of
nity level, some interventions have set out to
women’s economic empowerment.
involve and empower male gender equality
champions. Fauzia Ahmed (2008) has argued Laws that promote men’s involvement in
that women’s economic empowerment initia- the education of children can for example
tives could “use men to change other men,” contribute to the promotion of different mas-
by identifying those men who are supportive culinities and bring better indirect support
of women’s empowerment, and to empower for women’s economic empowerment. One

6 - http://www.heforshe.org/

5
example of such a law from a non-nordic men globally towards gender equality. Its aim
country is Costa Rica’s Responsible Paterni- is to engage 1 million men and boys by July
ty Law, which included awareness-raising 2015, this engagement being sanctioned by
campaigns and public support for mothers men and boy’s registration on the HeForShe
to request DNA testing from men. The law campaign website6. The website also includes
led to a decline in the number of children implementation plans for UN agencies, indi-
with unrecognized paternity- from 29,3% in viduals, civil societies and universities. Such
1999 to 7,8 % in 2003 (Hegg et al., 2005 in a campaign aims to have a transformative
Barker et al., 2007). impact beyond the individual level, on the
global policy level, and has gained the sup-
The HeForShe campaign, launched in Sep- port of policy-makers as influential as Barack
tember 2014 by UNWomen, seeks to engage Obama or Ban Ki-Moon.

Useful tools and strategies to engage

men in WEE and WED
Several tools and strategies to engage men in and WED. These activities may focus on
WEE and WED interventions can be drawn a range of issues such as gender atti-
from the interventions mentioned above and tudes, gender-based violence, division
the broader literature. Finally, as it can be of household chores and caretaking,
difficult to engage men in certain activities, a relationships and sexual health etc.
list of ways to incentivize their participation  3) Inviting men to the trainings tar-
is given. geting women. This strategy helps
 1) Gender assessments. Gender iden- mitigate the jealousy that projects solely
tities are by definition complex, fluid, targeting women may sometimes trigger
and very context-specific. In order to for male family members. It can lead to
design a relevant gender-transformative a better understanding and recognition
intervention, it is essential to carry out a of their female family members’ econo-
thorough gender assessment of the com- mic activity. It can also encourage men
munity in which the intervention will to see the benefit of women’s economic
take place. This assessment will allow activity for the household as a whole,
understanding why men may be resis- and thus trigger their active support for
tant to their female family members’ their wives’ business.
economic empowerment but also how  4) Combining single-sex and mixed
they could best support them. It should activities. Interventions have used
also guide the design of an adapted pro- single-sex discussion groups for certain
ject response, targeting men’s specific topics, such as sexual behaviours or
needs and engaging them effectively. alcohol consumption for example, thus
 2) Capacity building activities. They are a creating a safe space in which men and
useful tool in encouraging men to adopt women could express their concerns
positive masculinities. They can take the freely. In order to encourage better com-
form of trainings, workshops, discussion munication and shared decision-taking
groups etc. and their main aim would between household members, mixed
be to trigger behavioural change so that sessions have also been used and have
men become more supportive of WEE shown positive results.

6
 Box 1. Incentives for men to attend the activities
One of the challenges in engaging men and boys in WEE and WED interventions is to find
the right incentives for them to participate in activities that might challenge them in their
vision of masculinity. Projects sometimes have had to come up with innovative ways to
incentivize them, some of which are listed below.
◗◗ Linking the activities with typical moments of male socialization was the strategy adopted
by Promundo in Brazil. They linked men’s workshops with weekly football matches.
Men only received equipment for matches/tournaments and were allowed to join teams
playing after having participated in a gender education session. This mechanism promoted
accountability for individual men, as well as between teammates and teams.
◗◗ Financial incentives were sometimes necessary to get men to attend the trainings. For
example, a certain amount of money was given out to men in the microfinance interven-
tion in Vietnam.
◗◗ Men’s attendance tends to be higher when they feel that the topics are of interest to them.
For example, they might be more interested in the business and economic empowerment
trainings than in the gender discussions. Framing the activities in a way that will be
appealing to the men, and drawing from the information gathered from a preliminary
gender assessment to do so, is therefore essential.
◗◗ Taking into account the schedules of participants is essential. Making activities available
on evenings and week-ends, outside of work hours, is important to ensure that men can
attend the activities. When both husbands and wives are involved in the activities, it is
crucial to provide childcare for children, so that all members of the household are able
to attend the training.

 5) Identifying and bring further support  6) Campaigning. This strategy allows
to male gender champions. This can the promotion of positive masculini-
be done at all three levels -household, ties, including through shining light
community and policy- along with buil- on male gender champions at the lo-
ding gender champions’ capacity to cal and global levels. It is possible to
advocate for WEE and WED interven- use new technologies such as social
tions and male support. Moreover, it also media, and also to use more traditio-
contributes to the sustainability of such nal means of dissemination, such as
interventions. These gender champions flyers, signs, banners. Combinations of
can be individual men, such as commu- public events to trigger discussion in
nity leaders or gender-equality allies, or the community, such as theatre pieces
male-targeted NGOs promoting positive and football matches, with more targe-
masculinities and gender equality. They ted interventions such as door-to-door
can be at the household, community or campaigning or peer-to-peer discus-
at the policy level. sions have been used.

7
Recommendations for engaging men in
WEE and WED
Understand context-specific gender dynamics to campaigns to support men’s inclusion in
ensure that men play a positive role in WEE WEE and WED efforts.
and WED. Finding the balance in engaging
men without allowing them to over-power Start young. Younger men and women em-
women focused programming is essential. brace greater gender equality (IMAGES,
Conducting a gender assessment at different 2010)7. The examples of Brazil and South
levels –household, community, and policy- will Africa reflect interventions that specifically
allow to identify existing cultural, religious, target boys and young men. It is important
institutional practices that can be leveraged to engage boys and young men as early as
or not in project implementation. Moreover, at possible, especially for future generations of
the stage of project implementation and after female entrepreneurs and business owners.
the project is finished, close monitoring and
Include all male family members. Project im-
evaluation of male engagement components is
plementation should strive to engage all male
necessary to understand how the interventions
family members, and not only the husband.
should be later scaled up.
Interventions in Côte d’Ivoire and Brazil have
Devote larger efforts to developing tools considered that every generation of males can
and strategies that engage men in WEE play a role in transforming gender dynamics
and WED. Governments, organizations and at the household level. This allows being more
other stakeholders should devote larger inclusive of households in which the spouse
efforts and resources to develop tools and or male family member can’t participate in
strategies to engage men at household, interventions due to work schedules and of
community and policy levels, in WEE and female-led households that have no partner or
WED. This would enable moving beyond in- husband present. At project level, and based
come-based returns for women and lead to on the preliminary needs-assessment, pro-
a more sustainable change towards gender jects can look to involve men of different ages
equality. Tools and strategies can include and connections to women including boys,
training materials, manuals for facilitators, adolescents, adults, seniors, sons, brothers,
online courses and community activities/ cousins and neighbours.

Future areas to consider and explore

The need for better monitoring and eva- initiatives will show what specific aspects of
luation of changes. More evidence is needed an intervention (community engagement vs.
on the impact men and their involvement can couples dialogue groups) have the largest im-
have of women’s economic empowerment pact on gender equality, violence, household
and their entrepreneurial activities both at relations and ultimately, support women as
the policy, community and household level. income generators and entrepreneurs. Buil-
There is also a need for better evidence on ding a strong evidence base for policy makers
what combination of interventions is most and government leaders will establish what to
impactful. Understanding and measuring the do to successfully engage men in WEE and
impact of male engagement in WEE and WED WED programming in the future.

7 - The International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) is one of the most comprehensive household studies on men’s
attitudes and practices – along with women’s opinions and reports of men’s practices – on a wide variety of topics related to
gender equality. Reports are available: http://promundoglobal.org/programs/international-men-and-gender-equality-survey-images/

8
The need to create a solid theory of change. the short run and not lead to overnight eco-
Stakeholders must take into account the re- nomic gains in terms of income generation
sistance of social and cultural norms learned and business performance, they may even-
over time in order to create gender-trans- tually have a longer, more sustainable impact.
formative and holistic interventions that go
beyond WEE and WED programming and Unpaid care work. It is important for go-
engage men to become true allies in women’s ver nments, donors and inter national
economic empowerment. Further research on organizations to understand and address
ways to scale up existing strategies and tools the issue of unpaid care work. The parti-
engaging men and boys is needed. cipation of women in labour markets and
entrepreneurial activities are hindered by
Cost-effectiveness for international organi- caregiving responsibilities. Some national
zations and governments. More research is policies and programs can be criticized
required on measuring the cost-effective- for reinforcing these traditional gender
ness of interventions that engage men in norms. However governments also have
WEE and WED initiatives. Governments as the space to train government employees in
well need to explore the cost-effectiveness the health, education and social assistance
of macro-level policies that seek to engage sectors on engaging men in care work at
men in supporting women’s entrepreneurial home so as to support women’s economic
activities and empowerment through national participation outside the home. Additionally,
policies. While WEE and WED interventions organizations implementing interventions at
with a male engagement component or at the the household level should take unpaid care
household level may be more expensive in work into account more.

9
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