article · Men and Masculinities
In rapidly urbanising settings across the Global South, engaging men in women's empowerment requires navigating tensions between traditional norms and social change. Research conducted through focus groups and interviews in northwestern Tanzania shows that different demographic groups conceptualise male support for women's empowerment in markedly divergent ways. While opposing intimate partner violence and endorsing women's employment are widely recognised as positive indicators, views split sharply along gender and generational lines. Elders define support within strict limits that maintain male authority, whereas younger participants advocate for transformative views that actively challenge established age and gender hierarchies. Furthermore, women place greater value on practical, day-to-day assistance over theoretical rhetoric. Notably, a significant gap exists for young men between expressing vocal, rights-based support for women's empowerment and putting those principles into concrete practice in daily life.
Understanding how different generations and genders perceive male allyship helps prevent well-intentioned social initiatives from stalling. In rapidly developing communities, bridging the divide between vocal support and real-world behavioural change is critical for designing effective community interventions that actually improve women's lives without triggering social friction.
The findings can inform the design of social programmes, community interventions, and workplace diversity training for development agencies, non-governmental organisations, and policymakers operating in urbanising African contexts. As an early-stage qualitative study, the research provides behavioural insights rather than a direct commercial product, meaning any translation into structured training curricula or engagement toolkits would require further operational development and applied testing.
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Engaging men in women’s empowerment is a global priority, yet there is still limited understanding of how men’s support for women’s empowerment is conceptualized across diverse demographic groups, particularly within communities undergoing change. This gap is especially critical in rural-urbanizing contexts, representative of many contemporary Global South settings, where individuals navigate tensions between respecting tradition while responding to novel social transformations. Using focus groups and interviews, this study examines how men’s support for women’s empowerment is conceptualized among young men, women, and elders in a fast-urbanizing Tanzanian community. Participants frequently noted supporting women’s employment and opposing intimate partner violence as markers of support, yet broader understandings diverged significantly by age and gender. Younger participants voiced transformative notions of empowerment, challenging traditional norms, and advocating for women’s empowerment in ways that disrupt age hierarchies, including educating elders. In contrast, elders framed support within boundaries that preserved male authority, while women prioritized practical forms of support over men’s more abstract, rights-based rhetoric. A particularly striking finding was the disconnect between young men’s vocal support for women’s empowerment and their limited actions to enact such support in daily life. These generational and gendered differences reflect participants’ varied priorities, exposures, and experiences, and offer insights into how gender roles are renegotiated in urbanizing communities.
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DOI: 10.1177/1097184x251326192
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