Caribbean Men Research Paper

“Equality for women means progress for all”, the celebrated theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, opens the floor for many questions. Is the assertion true? Will that equality come at the expense of others? The Caribbean region has been long criticized for its inability to fully socialize its populace according to general consensus. The long standing debate about the marginalisation of Caribbean men has fuelled many detailed research all of which seek to verify the authenticity of Errol Miller’s claim that Caribbean males are being marginalized. The remnants of slavery combined with the radical shift of acceptable gender roles have led to disorientation of what society deems acceptable and worth striving for by each gender resulting

And if so what are the factors that influence the phenomenon. The marginalisation of the Caribbean male is as a result of the underperformance of males in the education system, their attempt to conform to society’s perception of the “macho man” and the increase economic and social independence of women.

The declining male attendance at tertiary institutions coupled with their underperformance has brought to the forefront the existence of male gender gaps or male marginalisation within the Caribbean. This is evident in the Caribbean’s education system which shows a gross overrepresentation of females out performing males at both the secondary and tertiary level. “The ratio of males to females for the first set of students who entered the University of the West Indies in 1948 was 70:30. By 1974/75 and by 1982/83 women constituted 50 per cent of the entire student body at UWI”, (Figueroa 2004). The trend remained the same as by late 1992, 70% of graduates from the Jamaican campus were female (Reddock, 2004,

Societal perception of the “macho man” towards which men should strive brings in focus the overwhelming influence society exerts on the formation of the “masculine identity”. To assert their position, men in acting out the “macho man”, “affirms their allegiance to prevailing standards of masculinity while publicly attesting to what is being rejected: child-like, feminising, gay and castrating “failed” masculinities”, (Plummer, Mclean, and Simpson, 2008, p. 8). Boys who transgress those expectations risk being ridiculed and labelled a ”sissy” a term referring to effeminate men by both boys and girls (Bailey, Branche and Henry-Lee 2002, as cited in Plummer. et al 2008, p. 9). Unable to 'become a man' by mainstream, socially acceptable means, many men are led to redefine manhood in penile terms argues, (Espeut, 2005) resulting in a promiscuous lifestyle. This reasoning concurs with Lewis (2007) who postulates that “Having a girlfriend, or at least developing an interest in the other sex was definitely the heteronormative marking of not merely acquiring a consciousness of masculinity but a sense of the recognition of gender difference and a time of budding sexuality.” In furtherance of this argument, the necessity to make one’s masculine identity known; through sharp resistance of homophobic