By Olivia Morris

The future of the global economy lies in the hands of African women. Africa is on track to provide 85% of the increase in the world’s working-age population by 2050. If at least half of those working-age Africans are women, achieving SDG 5 (gender equality) in Africa is critical for driving global growth.

However, recent data show that progress on SDG 5 can come with significant trade-offs, even among its own targets. Impact assessments reveal that progress towards SDG target 5.7, equal rights to economic resources, could actually reverse progress towards target 5.2, ending all violence against women and girls. Unfortunately, when women in sub-Saharan Africa have increased access to jobs and generate their own income, they can experience increased rates of intimate partner violence. A far better policy to achieve progress on SDG 5 is to enable men to drive women’s economic empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.

When men feel that their role in society is threatened, they can attempt to forcefully reclaim it. Many African societies follow traditional gender norms. They believe that men should oversee finances while women should oversee domestic work and care for children. When outside interventions disrupt these norms, African men perceive women’s economic empowerment as a threat to their own. This is true across other developing economies as well. Global data reveal that when a woman ends up generating a higher income than that of her husband, her success threatens her husband’s role as the primary financial provider. Development projects in Africa seeking progress on SDG 5 and its targets should prioritize working with men to engage them as key actors to achieve lasting economic empowerment for women.

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The problem does not lie in the household division of labor. The problem arises when empowerment initiatives view increasing women’s incomes as a battle for power, rather than an opportunity for men and women to generate increased income together. For example, the SASA! Approach, used by Raising Voices across Africa, cites that root cause of violence against women is “men’s power over women.” While there are real issues with men’s dominance over women within African households, these words paint the African household as a place to dethrone men. A better approach to achieve poverty reduction is through providing discussion-based gender equality training to men and encouraging partners to work together.

First, data prove this approach works. In Tanzania, a randomized control study split a rural community into a treatment and a control group. The project gave women in the treatment group business skills and offered male-only discussion groups for men to speak about deep-seated gender norms. The control group consisted of only women receiving training on business skills. The results are staggering. Women in the treatment group increased their savings by 49%, while women in the control group decreased their savings by 43%. Men are not an obstacle to women’s economic empowerment when given the chance to participate in the process.

Second, the results from the Tanzania study show the wisdom in being pragmatic, not dogmatic. Many sub-Saharan Africans still hold strongly to traditional gender norms and conservative family values. The reality is that traditional tribal structures still provide the lion’s share of decision-making power to men. For this reason, men cannot be sidelined in the process of changing such deep-seated gender norms. The international community, just as the African wives they seek to support, depend on men’s active participation in gender equality work in order to see real progress in achieving SDG 5 by 2030.

Finally, empowering men with the skills necessary to support their wives highlights the synergies between the Goals as well. Working with men to achieve women’s economic empowerment is the best way to achieve progress on SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth). A randomized control trial in Rwanda shows that families receiving male-only and couple-level trainings almost doubled their household income compared to control groups where only women received support.

Another male engagement project in Rwanda found that one participant began to limit his alcohol use, became a more present father and a supportive husband. As a result of the training, the couple was able to renovate their house, buy a water tank, and rent land for farming. Beyond growing incomes for men and women, this approach has the potential to break the cycle of poverty for Africans by the strengthening the African family.

Critics will argue that spending project resources on men-only discussion groups only further entrenches gender norms. But the data from Tanzania and Rwanda show the opposite. When men are given the space to process and discuss the benefits of women’s empowerment, both women’s and men’s incomes grow. The wisdom of this approach is that it doesn’t take anything away from men. It simply adds to their understanding of the benefits of including their wives in their daily burden of providing for their family.

Men are the solution to unleashing African women’s enormous economic potential. Men can be the solution to achieving significantly greater gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Seeing men as the primary gate through which women can increase their own income is practical and evidence-based. When men are included in the conversation, they see the value in giving their wives economic independence. When men are included in the conversation, incomes from both the husband and wife grow. When men are included in the conversation, the African family prospers.   

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Olivia Morris is an MA candidate in International Development Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University.