Abstract:

Peer influence in early life is critical to the formation of beliefs about appropriate behavior for each gender. Complicating matters, recent studies suggest that men consistently overestimate peer support for inequitable gender norms. Combined with social conformity, this susceptibility to ‘norm misperception’ may represent a barrier to women’s empowerment. However, why men misperceive peer beliefs remains unclear. Working in an urbanizing Tanzanian community where previous research has documented overestimation of peer support for inequitable gender norms, we used focus groups and participant observation to investigate how young men (age 18-30) forge perceptions about others. Men characterized their community as undergoing a transition to more equitable norms due to the influences of urbanization, globalization, and interactions with external agencies and different ethnicities. This change introduces novel diversity and reinforces uncertainty about prevailing beliefs. Confidence in the discernibility of peer beliefs hinged on whether associated behaviors were visible in the public domain or expressed within the private affairs of women and men. Furthermore, men acknowledged intentionally obscuring behavior deemed supportive of women to portray ideals of masculine strength. These results suggest that misperception of peer gender role ideology is pronounced during periods of rapid cultural transition and illuminates the mechanisms at play.

Speaker's social media:

@kanyawera2021