Dr. Peter Weller argues that patriarchal views are still rooted in Jamaican culture.
Peter Weller, clinical psychologist, Counselling Unit, Health Centre, UWI; Faculty of Medical Sciences and member:
WE DO a lot of work with counselling at the Health Centre and also Student Services. One activity we use is to ask people to say whether they agree or disagree with certain statements. I did a workshop with some new students, talking to them about gender, and I asked them to agree or disagree with the statement 'The man should be the head of the household'. Invariably, the main reason given for the man to be the head of the household is the Bible.
THE BEST PERSON SHOULD LEAD
... I changed the statement and asked, 'In an organisation should the man be the head?' ... And the same people who were saying the man should be the head of the household said no. I asked them, 'Can you tell me why in an organisation the best person must lead, despite gender, but in the family it has to be the man?' And they noted the Bible said so.
The dynamic processes that are taking place, we really have to be aware of them and understand with whom, when, where and how to intervene because the young people are making changes. There are patterns and trends that can work in our favour in terms of healthy use of the media and music, but there are things working against us. They ... find out about all kinds of sexual behaviours and liaisons and linkages and sources of the information, and half the time the adults know nothing about it. We really have to get more involved.
DON'T LEAVE MEN OUT
Our theme was HIV/AIDS and we talked about active men and passive women. I think it is very important that we make efforts to engage men in the discussion, especially men in men's organisations.
I am sharing with you a research project that was recently funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), where a group of investigators is going to look at men and men's organisations and their attitude toward gender and gender equality, particularly as it relates to things such as HIV/AIDS because if you don't have the men involved in this discourse, if they are not at the table for this discussion, you are not going to get the change and their activities will remain unhealthy.
