“A snake with no teeth”: Urbanization shifts perceptions of men who support women’s empowerment in Northwestern Tanzania

Abstract

• In this urbanizing Tanzanian community, supportive men may face reputational harm, social exclusion, and even physical violence—particularly from other men and elders. • Supportive men’s marriage prospects, sexuality, and reproductive capabilities are often subject to scrutiny. • Urbanization appears to introduce new incentives for men to support women’s empowerment, including social prestige, access to novel employment, and increased adaptability to urban life. • Young women commonly viewed supportive men as desirable partners and future fathers. • Effective interventions to engage men in women's empowerment in similar contexts should address structural barriers, promote the benefits of gender equity, and provide protections for supportive men. Achieving gender equality requires the support of all genders, but efforts to engage men in women’s empowerment initiatives have been fraught with resistance. Existing research demonstrates that men often anticipate negative consequences for opposing patriarchal norms but has less frequently addressed variability in such perceptions within communities and their modification by socioecological change. Here, we examine the ramifications men face when deemed supportive of women’s empowerment with regard to their social status and prospects for marriage and reproduction, and how these ramifications are shifting with urbanization. Data come from a Tanzanian community, selected because it combines patriarchal norms, with shifting gender roles accompanying urbanization, offering a relevant case for understanding gender norm change in similar low and middle-income settings. Focus groups and in-depth interviews with community members (young men, young women, and elders) confirm severe social costs for men who support women’s empowerment, primarily in the form of reputational damage and social ostracism. Both men and women also frequently question the sexuality, desirability, and reproductive prospects of men engaging in gender atypical behaviors that support women. However, these costs are giving way to emerging incentives for a subset of supportive men who gain social prestige, at least among relatively well-educated peers, via their association with ‘modern’ values, attractiveness to women, access to novel employment opportunities, and adaptability to urban life. Through identifying entrenched costs for supportive men and emerging incentives accompanying urbanization, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the barriers and pathways to effectively engaging men in women’s empowerment.