Gender activist calls for inclusion of men in Gender Studies

The coordinator for advocacy and outreach at the Centre for Gender, Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) of the University of Cape Coast, Dr. Theresah Addai-Munumkum has stated that it is very vital to include men in gender studies which is currently characterized mainly with the study of women.

According to her studying men as gendered beings will help uncover what society thinks about and expects from those born as males adding that when masculinity is understood as a gendered ideology just like femininity it helps bridge the gap between the two concepts.

“There is the need to focus the attention on the study of men as gendered beings in order to reflect and reexamine traditional concept of masculinity and manhood. When masculinity is understood as a gendered ideology just like femininity, the potential to envisage the common agenda between the two becomes clearer”, she noted.

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She added, “In including men in gender studies a gap is filled in the scholarship on gender which has for many years become synonymous with women leaving men as the unexamined category”.

Dr. Addai-Munumkum, was speaking at the fifth webinar Series of CEGRAD yesterday which was on the topic, “Masculinities, Anxieties and Acceptances”

She further indicated that although the study of men is important just as the study of women, there are some anxieties with the study of men and the main one is that people think the focus on men will recreate the exclusion of women in scholarly research.

However, according to her, this challenge can be prevented when men are studied with regards to how they relate with others.

“One way to avoid this challenge is that we need to in the research consistently examine the specific ways in which men can exist or exist as and in gendered power relations with men, women, children young people and with each other”, she indicated.