Putting the “Men” in FeMENism

By Katharina Kempf

The first major document to include men as important actors in stopping violence against women was at the World Conference on Population in Cairo in 1994, of which the Program for Action asks men to actively prevent violence against women. The role of men in feminism has always been debated, and so it is interesting to see how (or if) different organizations approach it. Nowhere have men been more typically stereotyped as controlling, degrading, and violent than in Mexico, known for its machismo. One initiative, Viento a Favor, in the capital city of the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, approaches violence against women from the source—violent men—trying to create change at the cultural roots of the problem.

The severity of the problem in Oaxaca is continually increasing, says Eduardo Liendro, coordinator of the organization Diversidades (Diversity), of which Viento a Favor is a part. Although most of the media attention on women’s rights issues in Mexico is directed at Ciudad Juarez, it is Oaxaca that is first in the nation in terms of childbirth mortality and domestic violence. Here, 487 women have been murdered between 1999 and May of 2007. Another 477 have died of childbirth-related complications, and over 1,000 are sexually abused every year, found a collective of women’s rights organizations in a report published in 2007. The report includes a list of the most recent abuses, a chilling compilation of victims, aggressors, and details of the crime, in an attempt to raise awareness of the intensity of an issue that is downplayed by the state government. The stories of abuse fall under the definition of femicidio, femicide, or extreme gender-based violence, a product of violating women’s human rights in the public and private sector in a culture of impunity, as stated by Article 21 of the federal Ley general de acceso de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia (General Law of Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence).

Viento a Favor’s brochures and documents say “a program of men eradicating our violence.” As Liendro puts it, “there are many spaces for women, with a focus of attending the victim, but they don’t go to the cause,” the root of the problem. The goal of Viento a Favor is re-education; a basic intervention directed at violent men to get them to change their way of life. Men come to the program at the recommendation of psychologists, public ministries, or the authorities, because they’re in trouble with the police. Many are in crisis, says Liendro, because they’ve been denounced by their wives or girlfriends and are confused and trying to get their partners back. Many are also suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction.

Viento a Favor tries to make violence visible, because it is invisible as a cultural norm, where men merely imitate and reproduce what their fathers or brothers or uncles are doing. The program teaches that there are different forms of violence—phsyical violence, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, psychological abuse through manipulations such as threats to leave, and economic abuse, by denying women access to money. The program offers men tools, both theoretical and practical, to confront their violence.

Viento a Favor begins with a basic information session looking at the men’s motivation for joining the program, which leads to weekly group sessions where they come to work on decreasing their personal violence. Since its inception, the program has worked with about twenty-five men, usually around six to seven at a time. Liendro has noted that over time, there are changes in the participants. One participant came into the program refusing to grant his wife a divorce, and after a few sessions finally decided to sign the papers. The program has had the greatest success in stopping physical violence.

Liendro says he would like to see more programs like this throughout all of Oaxaca, and that just in Oaxaca City alone, they’d need a hundred more to be able to reach the whole population. The problem is that Viento a Favor has no government support—whereas in the United States, such programs are required by law of men charged with domestic violence, in Oaxaca, it’s voluntary. Diversidades has had better results working with local community governments in indigenous regions, such as the Sierra Mixe, that still follow the traditional indigenous system of governance called usos y costumbres, where the organization can deal directly with a town’s judge and local police rather than fighting the state bureaucracy.

The state government should be working with Viento a Favor. In 2007, a feminist deputy in the federal government, Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos, helped pass the federal law to stop violence against women, the Ley general de acceso de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia. This law was the first of its kind, including sweeping regulations to eliminate femicide sexual harassment in the workplace, and guaranteeing women access to health services, including emergency birth control or abortion in the case of rape. Especially promising for Liendro, the law requires the government to provide programs of re-education to men who are obligated to attend if decreed by a “competent authority.” As a federal law, all state governments have had to adjust their codes to fit the new regulations. The only two states that failed to comply are Guanajato and Oaxaca. Both the federal Congress and the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (National Women’s Institute) demanded that Oaxaca immediately incorporate the new law in the state codes, and the Mexican Congress stated that feminicidio is committed by authorities that are negligent or colluding with the aggressors to create institutional obstacles to justice. When the government is unable to guarantee a safe and just life for women and eradicate violence, feminicidio is a crime of the state.

Two years later, on February 26^th,2009 the Oaxacan government has finally passed the state version of the federal law, the Ley estatal de acceso de las mujeres a una vida libre de violencia de género. However, non-governmental women’s rights organizations, united at a press conference two days after the law passed, say that a victory for women is not in sight, because the state version lacks key points included in the federal law. Firstly, the law includes no specific terms for when previous state legislation will be adjusted in concordance with it, prompting the women’s organizations to say, “we are counting on a law that is inoperable at the hour of using it to procure or impart justice, because it can easily be contradicted by the current legal codes.” Secondly, the new law states the government should act out its requirements based on budgetary ability, rather than requiring the government to set aside funds to see that all aspects of the law are enacted, as stated in the federal law. Thirdly, at the last minute, civil society organizations that were included as actors in the process of developing and monitoring the law, as stated in earlier drafts of the law and also included in the federal version, were taken out. For Liendro and Viento a Favor, centers for re-education are noted as a tool for combating violence and are even obligatory if men are directed to go by a judicial authority (rather than a “competent authority,” broadening the range of people that could obligate men to attend, as the federal law stated). However, there are no provisions for who is responsible for creating such centers, let alone where, when, and with what funds. Viento a Favor is currently the only center in Oaxaca, and with three trained counselors, doesn’t have the capacity to tackle the level of need in the state—although they could train people to open new centers.

The creation of more programs of re-education for men who commit acts of violence against women represent the possibility of making cultural change in terms of social norms and attitudes towards women in Oaxaca. The programs represent a feminism where men aren’t simply seen as guilty or as bad, but as potent actors in generating equality. As one of Viento a Favor’s posters, an image of a farmer, says, “Yo siembro afecto y respeto…y digo NO a la violencia en mi familia.” “I sow affection and respect…and say NO to violence in my family.” However, in order to be a tool accessible to people all over the state of Oaxaca, more centers need to be opened.