Salud y Género

Salud y Género's approaches are based on the communication for social change theories of Brazilian Paulo Freire, in which the process of transformation is driven by the participants. Drawing on these theories, the organisation employs a horizontal or egalitarian methodology that uses dialogue among participants and facilitators as the principal instrument for experience sharing and reflection. Salud y Género uses these strategies not only to involve men, but to challenge them to examine their assumptions of masculinity and of their right to greater power than women, and to explore the effect of these assumptions on their own health and that of their female partners. For example, one key feature of Salud y Género's work has been to sensitise men to violence as a feature of masculine socialisation harmful to men as well as women and to recognise that repression of emotion often underlies violence.

Working primarily (though not exclusively) with men who are facing the challenges of poverty, unemployment, and societal discrimination, as well as with professionals and service providers who work with the economically poor, Salud y Género undertakes gender education through workshops and consciousness-raising groups. In order to promote dialogue, men and women are often first convened separately in groups before meeting jointly. Workshops begin with a session in which each participant chooses a drawing or a magazine photograph and shares what it means to him or her. Next, each person is asked to imagine "the best and worst outcomes of this workshop."

During the workshops, participatory and consciousness-raising exercises help participants examine the consequences of "masculine" attributes such as inability to express emotion, male "privilege" not to participate in childcare, risk-taking behaviour, and rejection of "weakness" within themselves and others. Various methodologies are used to foster this type of reflection, including a collective diagnosis of the issues, role play, and techniques such as body mapping and a "Time Tunnel" exercise. In the latter activity, participants construct a written "life review" to articulate in concrete terms the specifics that have made them the way they are; these writings are used to stimulate group dialogue. This approach can be used, for instance, to focus on situations where the participants suffered or carried out aggression. (The organisation stresses that including the experiences of participants who were on the "receiving end" of violence is important for fostering empathy.) Discussion on topics such as the connection between alcohol abuse and violence is also encouraged through the use of videos and films, which are designed to help male participants understand the relationship between stereotypically male attributes and men's shorter life expectancy, failure to form intimate relationships with their sexual partners and children, and inattention to their own mental, physical, and reproductive health.

To cite another of the many strategies developed for use in these workshops, MATEA (a Spanish acronym for Fear-Affection-Sadness-Anger-Joy) attempts to explore and understand the obstacles that prevent men from sharing their feelings, as well as to analyse the health costs involved in repressing them. The 5 basic emotions (MATEA) are presented, and the participants are asked where they feel each of the emotions in their bodies. The participants then assign - and then share with the group - a number from one to five to each emotion, giving the highest number to the emotion that is most difficult to express. The group facilitator assists the participants in putting this information in perspective (e.g., 1 and 2 are generally emotions we have learned to exaggerate, and 4 and 5 are emotions we may have learned to control); participants reflect and comment on these ideas.

Salud y Género also engages in advocacy-based efforts to influence public policy and programmes through transformation of the institutions that work on reproductive rights, enhanced male participation, and prevention of gender-based violence. For example, to promote new models of fatherhood and the family, Salud y Género organises campaigns such as "How My Daddy Looks to Me". As part of this campaign, a request for drawings was extended in 1998 to specific primary and preschools in 3 different cities, which yielded 500 drawings; the same campaign was conducted in 2000 at the national level and produced nearly 250,000 pictures. The drawings were displayed widely, and materials (posters, calendars, and a book published by the National Institute for Women and UNICEF) were designed around these pictures.

Gender Equity, Gender-Based Violence, Reproductive Health, Alcoholism, Children's and Women's Rights.

According to Salud y Género, Mexico's women have brought many changes to the workplace, educational system, and family planning programmes, but no comparable change has occurred in increasing men's participation in the domestic sector.

Salud y Género's work focuses on two sets of power relationships: intergenderrelationships evolving from a patriarchal model that presupposes the subordination of women to men, and intragender relationships that "often promote inequality among members of the same sex." Its work has been developed at the intersection of health, gender, and culture. "Change must be sought out intentionally. By making oppressive social relationships more visible, every one of us comes to understand that we are immersed in hierarchies of power relationships that shape our behavior and reinforce the exercise of power through abuse and inequality." Salud y Género's aim is to deconstruct these myths and patterns by promoting critical thinking about individuals' lives and society and by transforming individuals' relationships with others.

From 1998-2001, Salud y Género trained more than 1,000 people per year in 124 workshops; about 40% of participants were men.