By Lynn FraneyKnight-Ridder Newspapers
During a lunchtime discussion last week at Central Missouri StateUniversity, a professor said he had realized that men’s lives hadchanged when he first saw diaper-changing tables in men’s restrooms.
Janice Winters, assistant professor of nursing, leaned closer tomake sure she had heard him right. Men’s restrooms havediaper-changing tables, too?
“I’ve learned something,” she said to her colleagues.
Such moments of enlightenment are just what organizers wanted tosee at a week-long exploration on campus of the “Role of Males in the21st Century.” Events ended Friday.
Professors, administrators, students and Warrensburg residentsdiscussed men’s shifting roles in the workplace, the family andsociety.
Devoting five days of lectures and discussions to men’s lives israre on college campuses. Colleges occasionally sponsor lecturesabout men’s issues, and about 200 colleges nationwide offer a fewcourses in “men’s studies.”
But a discussion of gender usually means talking about women’slives and what are considered women’s issues: sexual harassment,workplace discrimination, domestic violence and misogyny.
Most colleges have women’s centers, female student organizationsand women’s studies programs. They hold conferences or artisticevents that explore women’s lives.
Beth Tankersley, director of community awareness at CMSU, said shewanted to get men and women at the university talking about how men’slives are different today from decades ago.
“As the roles of women have changed over time, that has a directimpact on the roles of males, but we don’t always address that,” shesaid. “Both genders need to understand one another, the changingroles, how the roles complement one another.”
Dan Duhamell, who oversees six dormitories at CMSU, said he wasglad the focus had finally shifted to men.
“It’s not something campuses usually embrace,” he said. “Peopledon’t talk about men. I’ve heard other people on campus say there aremore important things to concentrate on than that.”
He required his dormitory advisers to attend Thursday’s lecture byMichael Kimmel on “Getting Inside Men’s Roles.” Kimmel has writtenseveral books on manhood and teaches men’s studies at a campus of theState University of New York.
Duhamell said his staff was trained to deal with issues such asrace and sexual orientation, but not on how masculinity affectspeople.
“Men are coming to college less and less, and when they’re here,they’re less successful,” he said. “They’re more likely to engage inhigh-risk behavior. We need to find out why men are doing that andfind out what we can do to push them in another direction.”
But some women on college campuses are uncomfortable, even upset,about the increasing attention paid to men and their roles.
“Men have been the dominant force and haven’t had to pay attentionto women,” said Mary Dee Wenniger, editor of the monthly nationalnewsletter Women in Higher Education. “All of a sudden, women aregetting smarter and getting in control and starting businesses. It’sa threatening kind of thing for men.”
Tankersley’s Office of Community Awareness usually organizesdiscussions of Women’s History Month, Black History Month,disabilities, sexual orientation and tolerance.
But last week, men and their challenges and fears, their strengthsand weaknesses, were in the spotlight.
“The reaction I’ve heard is, ‘It’s about time,’ ” said DomenicKagwanja, who is studying for a master’s degree in businessadministration. He attended a panel discussion last week.
“It’s refreshing,” Kagwanja said. “It seems like now the males aremore blamed for things than people caring about them. Males arereferred to with negativity. Attention needs to be focused on whatthe reality is. It’s good to be asked, ‘How does this affect us?'”
