Measuring changes in men’s attitudes and behaviours
The DHS also includes questions on the acceptability of physical violence, in particular whether a man is ever justified in beating his wife, for example if she argues with him, goes out without telling him, burns his food, neglects their children or refuses to have sex with him. These questions have been adapted for use in a range of other survey tools.
The Gender Equitable Men (GEM) Scale is a measurement tool designed to capture data on gender equitable attitudes and gendered roles and responsibilities). The GEM Scale was developed by the Population Council/Horizons and Instituto Promundo following qualitative research with men in Brazil.
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Equimundo (formerly Promundo) built on the GEM scale to develop another survey tool, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES). This is a household survey which seeks to capture information on gender equality in relation to men’s attitudes and behaviours, as well as women’s perspectives on these.
Both the GEM tool and the IMAGES survey have been adapted and used in a range of contexts and a number of evaluations and can be helpful in capturing whether a program is influencing the drivers of violence against women.
