HARMFUL GENDER NORMS

In South Africa, and many countries around the world, women tend to be responsible for childcare even in dual-income households. The ECD sector in this country is also largely led by women with pockets of male participation. Ndoda notes that when it comes to working with children men feel inhibited because 1) they aren’t expected to do it, or 2) they feel they might not have the capacity to do so because it hasn’t been modelled for them. He stresses that although there is a justified fear of men being violent, women are also capable of violence.

“Parents need to do due diligence when it comes to selecting ECD centres for their child to ensure that both male and female practitioners have been properly screened.”

Fathers Want Specially Designed Programmes

Mikhulu developed Ixesha lam noTata because the level of father participation in their “Book-sharing for Families” programme was low – between one and five percent.

“Initially, fathers stayed away because they saw it as a programme for women. So, we needed to specifically design one to be more attractive to fathers and needed it to work specifically with organisations who work with men,” explains Ebrahim.

The programme was first called “Book-sharing for Fathers”, but feedback showed that most dads were resistant to the word “book”. They said: “We don’t read, we don’t do books.” The conclusion was that the word book would deter dads from participating. But, as facilitators of the programme quickly found out, any anxiety the fathers may have felt fell away when they opened the wordless picture book with their child.

First Do No Harm

There are high rates of neglect, abuse and exploitation of children in South Africa. It is critical that anyone working with children is aware of how to respond when they suspect that a child is at risk. Equally important is the need to ensure appropriate conduct in our interactions with children and to ensure that all initiatives benefit children.

It is essential that programmes, activities, research, partnerships and associations are run on the principle of “Do No Harm” and that interventions do not inadvertently put children at risk or make them vulnerable in any way. The Children’s Act No. 38 of 2005 and the Children’s Amendment Act No. 41 of 2007 provide a comprehensive legal framework for the protection of children from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

Source:

Ilifa Labantwana ( https://ilifalabantwana.co.za/)

Gender norms can change. In fact, progressive attitudes about gender are starting to show in fairly recent alterations to labour regulations around paternity leave and popular discourse about the role of men in the care economy. For instance, a survey of more than 1 000 fathers (most under the age of 35), revealed that just 27% of respondents believed that it was inappropriate for men to be preschool teachers.11

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Positive Male Role Models Promote Female Economic Empowerment

The Stats SA gender series report says studies have shown that “women are faced with many responsibilities in their respective households that hinder them from actively participating in the labour force, such as childbearing, lack of affordable childcare, and balancing childcare responsibilities with the demands of work”.12 If young boys see men engaging in childcare at school and at home, these boys grow up knowing that men can and should take on caregiving responsibilities at home.

And if more men take on caregiving responsibilities, it may free up time for women to pursue work opportunities. Changes such as better parental leave for fathers when children are born and recruiting more men into ECD can shift the balance of care work.

BOOK-SHARING IMPROVES RELATIONSHIPS AND REDUCES VIOLENCE

Mikhulu researched different programmatic interventions that could best support a child’s early development in terms of cognitive and socio-emotional development and found that book-sharing had the most impact. In a randomised control trial of children aged 14 months, the language of those who participated in the book-sharing study far outweighed those in the control group. It also improved concentration levels. It has also been shown that book-sharing improves the nature of the parent-child relationship, helping the parent engage with the child in a more sensitive and reciprocal way.

Ebrahim explains: “What we learned from the book-sharing study is when you are engaging with your child in a nurturing, caring way, those children are also able to imitate that nurturing, affectionate behaviour. By creating a nurturing, caring engagement with a young child, that child can imitate that affectionate behaviour later on in life.”

BOOK-SHARING CAN CONTRIBUTE TO A LOVING AND NURTURING HOME

SAPPIN (South African Parenting Programme Implementers Network) is a network of NGOs that use evidence-based research to develop parenting programmes across South Africa. SAPPIN has identified book-sharing as a method that supports parents in adopting nurturing approaches to raising children.