intimate partners was associated with intimate partner violence perpetration across many of the study sites. Further, sexual entitlement was the most commonly reported motivation for men’s perpetration of rape. In many cases, such narratives of masculinity were also supported by women.
The study finds that men’s use of violence against women is pervasive across all levels of society and exists across socio-economic groups and diverse settings. The study also found that men’s perpetration of violence against women is more common among men who are less socially powerful compared with other men, or who experience social stresses as indicated by the levels of education, food insecurity, substance abuse or gang involvement. Still, while social exclusion or inequalities may be a trigger of violent behaviour, this violence is not perpetrated indiscriminately. Rather, it is used against those over whom the perpetrator perceives he has power and in a context where that kind of violence is normalized because of cultural acceptance and impunity.
Work to prevent violence against women must expand beyond efforts to change individual men and towards change objectives that aim to transform larger social norms around masculinities and promote non-violent ways to be men.
Unequal power dynamics are reflected not only in men’s violence against women but also in men’s violence against other men. Importantly, the majority of men who had been raped reported being attracted to men or having had consensual sex with men; however, the majority of men who had perpetrated rape against a man reported being attracted only to women. It therefore appears that male rape may be used as a means of asserting power over another group of men who are perceived as not living up to the dominant heterosexual notions of manhood (Dunkle et al., forthcoming). Further, men who had experienced homophobic violence were more likely to perpetrate gang rape against women and girls, perhaps as a means of reclaiming masculine status by demonstrating heterosexual performance. Although further research is needed, this suggests that men’s use of violence may be related to attempts to reassert power over individual women, girls or marginalized men when they feel that they have little power in society overall.
These findings reflect broader social patterns of gender inequality and patriarchy that promote male dominance and power over women. Multiple sexual partnerships and having sex with a sex worker or engaging in transactional sex were also associated with men’s perpetration of violence and are manifestations of a dominant form of masculinity that promote men’s sexual entitlement and the value of men’s sexual heterosexual performance. This may contribute to a degree of social acceptance or justification of men’s use of sexual violence. On the other hand, the research also demonstrates that there are multiple ways of being a man and that many men do not use violence. There is great diversity in men’s lives across the region, and the study suggests that some masculinities may be more or less violent than the dominant narratives described here. Some men expressed frustration with the dominant notions of what it means to be a man. Others embodied and practised alternative forms of masculinities that promote equitable power-sharing arrangements between men and women.
Violence against women may also be triggered by men’s perceived disempowerment in environments in which rapid social and economic structural changes impact perceptions around women’s and men’s roles and rights within the society. For example, the case study in box 8.1 provides an example of how rapid social and economic shifts in Vietnamese society have created a tension in how men imagine their role in relation to women’s role. 94