Earl. M. Bartley, Contributor
I FINALLY REALISED that the black male was in serious trouble when valourising homophobia and wearing your pants well below your bottom to show you were wearing underwear became symbols of masculinity.
Last academic year, the graduates from the Norman Manley Law School consisted of 53 women and nine men. Five of the men were from the other Caribbean islands, and four from Jamaica.
Since 1984, the students registered for degree courses at the University of the West Indies (UWI) have consisted of 70 per cent women and 30 per cent male.
In 1993/4, 54.3 per cent of all CXC passes in Jamaica went to females and 45.7 per cent to males, though the passes still follow traditional patterns with girls getting 81.4 per cent of English grade one passes while males received 60.7 per cent of the grade one passes for physics.
And, according to a 1993 World Bank Report, the disparity begins from the primary grades.
This phenomenon of young women out-performing young men in academic and professional achievements has been so persistent, pronounced and prolonged that it now seems part of the structural and cultural feature of Caribbean society.
MARGINALISATION OR UNDER-ACHIEVEMENT?
Despite occurring now for nearly 30 years, social scientists are still struggling to define the phenomenon. The terms black male marginalisation and under-achievement have been used.
In his article Male Privileging and Male Academic Under-performance, UWI economist Mark Figueroa describes it as "differential gender achievement."
Those disputing the marginalisation thesis point to the fact that there is no persuasive proof that black males in the Caribbean are economically excluded from earning a living, or precluded from advancing in their careers.
In fact, in Jamaica, the unemployment rate among women is twice as high for men 15 per cent compared to 7.7 per cent.
Men still dominate in the goods producing sectors of the economy such as agriculture and fishing, manufacturing, mining and construction.
Women, on the other hand, are more numerous in public administration, commerce and other services. Still, since 1973 female professionals in the labour force have exceeded the number of males, and, in 2002, there were 72,000 males to 105,350 females.
Further challenging the thesis of male marginalisation, Figueroa reports in his 1996 article that the number of male chief executives exceeded females eleven to one.
But, with the number of academically qualified women in the labour force exceeding the number of males by some 40,000, and with women filling up middle management, it seems only a matter of time before there is greater balance, if not dominance, of women in top management.
The related issue is whether the disparity in performance between the genders is to be described as male under-achievement or "differential gender achievement" as Figueroa suggests.
He supplies some figures for his conceptual preference showing that at Jamaica's University of Technology (UTech), men were the majority in architecture accounting for 66 per cent of graduates; 88 per cent in building, and 96 per cent of graduates in engineering.
Women dominated in commerce, 66 per cent; hospitality and food service, 89 per cent; science and health, 69 per cent and in technical education, 68 per cent.
CAUSES OF BLACK
UNDER-ACHIEVEMENT
Still, given the absolutely and overwhelmingly better performance of women in the educational system, I believe describing the phenomenon as "male under-achievement" is a more accurate term.
One of the main contributing causes for the poor academic performance among young males is what is described as the "feminisation" of teaching. That is, the preponderance of women as teachers in the classroom.
This situation, caused by the low wage and low status of teaching in society, is felt to starve young boys of male role models, considering that many are already coming from homes in which a father is absent.
Worse, because of the preponderance of women in the classroom, many now argue that not only is teaching being feminised, but education itself is being perceived by boys as a feminine activity.
This is reinforced by the strong homophobia of Jamaican males and the harsh, macho image of masculinity that many of them cultivate. Thus under these influences, many young boys feel that a man is rowdy and full of bravado, and that studying, which entails being quiet and sitting still is feminine.
Mark Figueroa blamed the under-performance of boys on what he describes as "male gender privileging".
Namely, that because boys are given more freedom to roam and are saddled with less chores at home. "... They get less exposure to tasks that would build self-discipline, time management and a sense of process..." qualities required for success in the formal education process.
Though there is great merit to that argument, the fact is, however, the cultural practices embodied in the Caribbean metaphor "tie the heifer and loose the bull" is not restricted to Caribbean societies but is found wherever patriarchy is institutionalised, especially in Westernised and urban settings.
Why this greater freedom generally allowed young men has translated into extreme licence in the Caribbean and other black communities is because of the absence of the father in the home, who would otherwise serve as disciplinarian and enforcer of the rules.
FINDING ANSWERS
And, this I believe, brings us to the crux of the matter. Why are so many black homes fatherless? Why are black men so confused about our masculinity?
The answer lies in the history of African enslavement and the failure of social and economic transformation since emancipation.
Among the things the enslaved African was forced to leave behind on the shores of Africa, nothing was more forcibly suppressed than their masculinity. In his article Black Masculinity in Caribbean Slavery, UWI History Professor, Hilary Beckles, defines masculinity as "a culturally determined tendency to act as provider and protector." Its main pillars are political authority, economic power, and domestic dominance.
Like the European, the African male came from a background of patriarchy or male dominated society. But in the context of chattel slavery where people became the property of others, while the white male was able to live the ideology of patriarchy, to be masculine, the African masculinity was suppressed in the most brutal ways. In Beckles cryptic phrase, the African male was "kept and kept down."
Prof. Orlando Patterson in The Sociology of Slavery explains the consequences of African emasculation: "Incapable of asserting his authority either as husband or father and with his female partner often in closer link with the source of all power in society the male slave eventually came to lose all pretensions to masculine pride and developed irresponsible parental and sexual attitudes."
To the extent that emancipation did not result in economic and social transformation, the African has remained powerless and with uncertain income, and many of them continue to shy away from their responsibilities as husband and father.
So today we have a situation in which too many of our youths are growing up without guidance and restraints and evolving their values on the fly from confused bits of information picked-up off society's grapevine.
THE CONSEQUENCES
The jury is still out on the long-term social consequences of male under-achievement, though some evidence is starting to filter in.
First, considering that 70 per cent of violent crimes are committed by young men under 30 years old, many of them under-educated or unskilled school drop-outs, there seems to be a definite link between the commission of crimes and under-achieving young men.
Secondly, in the African-American community where the phenomenon of male under-achievement has long been observed, economist Patrick Mason believes it has contributed to the relative shortage of marriageable mates available to black women.
In his 1998 article Joblessness and Unemployment, Mason observes that, by age 28, only 48 per cent of African American women had ever married compared to 80 per cent for white women.
A likely corollary of this lower marriage rate is that, whereas in 1961 about two-thirds of African-American births occurred inside marriage, by 1990, two-thirds of births were outside marriage. This clearly will continue the downward spiral of absentee fathers, unrestrained and undisciplined youths, under-achievement, and further weakening of the family.
Another possible consequence of the academic under-achievement of black males is that they become less trainable for a labour force that increasingly requires technical sophistication. This could limit our ability to attract and develop many of the industries needed to advance our economy and society.
THE WAY FORWARD
One possible positive of the youth's disinclination to formal education is that many of them are inclining to business and other entrepreneurial activity.
The traditional avenues of mobility in Jamaica for African people have been through education and the professions. For the Chinese, Lebanese and other racial minorities, it has been through business which has the greatest potential for wealth accumulation in a capitalist economy.
The problem of our under-achieving young males is largely the result of their untutored masculinity caused by the breakdown of the African family.
Traditional African masculinity was primarily concerned with caring for the family, and women and children generally, and was collegial, not rabidly competitive, towards other men.
Since masculinity originates and finds expression in nurturing the family and is in turn nurtured by it, then strengthening the family also strengthens masculinity.
Among the measures that could be taken to reinvigorate African masculinity are the following:
Provide incentives to encourage family formation and preservation. The state should consider a tax credit or "marriage bonus" to couples getting married, and an annual rebate to those who stay married. Banks and credit institutions should also offer more favourable terms to married people in recognition of the lesser risk premium and greater stability associated with marriage.
Considering the crisis state of the family in Jamaica, the church, Government and civil society need to develop early intervention programmes for at-risk youths (from as early as age four) and teenagers. These would be integrated mentoring programmes that would involve early targeting, nutritional support and after-school programmes run by the church and volunteers.
Especially as it relates to young boys and teenagers we need to reinvigorate programmes like the Young Pioneers and Boys Scout, but with a more indigenous foundation and practical orientation. That dynamic creative energy of males that the Greeks called Zeus
energy craves excitement and adventure, but needs discipline and structure. Programmes like the Boys Scouts and Young Pioneers formerly served many of those objectives.
Many of the suggestions made by Mark Figueroa would also be helpful. These include: ending the "feminisation" of teaching (and hopefully, the higher salaries promised to teachers will induce more men into the classroom) and breaking down the stereotypes between male and female fields and subjects.
Ultimately, reconstructing African masculinity will require ending the centuries-old problem of the powerlessness and uncertain income of the African male.
Given the intractable nature of these problems, however, maybe only a reinvigorated masculinity will be able to resolve these issues.
Earl Bartley is an economist and businessman. You can send your comments to adapapa@cwjamaica.com
