Culture, patriarchy influence men’s sexual behaviour

Unmarried women in black communities still fear paternity tests, says gender expert

CULTURAL and patriarchal beliefs absolve young men from talking responsibility for their sexual behaviour – placing responsibility squarely on women to avoid unplanned pregnancies.

This is the view of Lulama Nare, a commissioner at the Commission for Gender Equality, who was speaking at a discussion on paternity testing in South Africa and the plight of teenage mothers.

The event was held at Wits University on Thursday night.

Nare said young women were afraid of asking questions about paternity tests for fear of being shamed as a result of patriarchy, which is still deeply and predominantly entrenched in black communities.

“If women ask for paternity tests, it automatically labels them as loose, and society is quick to judge them, but leaves out the role of men,” she said.

Nare said it was more acceptable when men demand paternity testing, across all races. She said research has revealed that men, particularly in black communities, deny paternity because there are no consequences.

“By law, women have the right to verify paternity and to force the other partner to support the child, but these cultural belief systems end up undermining the legal recourse. Other races go to court and get justice to compel the other parent to play a role in the child’s life.”

Her statements were backed by clinical psychologist Phyllis Ndlovu, who said children in black communities sometimes grow up having a closer relationship with their fathers than their mothers.

This, she said, was because the children’s mothers were often afraid of being persecuted for being unsure who their child’s father is. “This creates secondary problems for the child,” she said.

“The children grow up wanting a fatherly involvement, but because sometimes the mother is not sure who the father is, that child ends up without a father.”

Ndlovu added that men often deny paternity to punish the woman if she is suspected of promiscuity.

“Generally, the idea is that a woman must be punished for sleeping around. But in the end the child suffers the most.”

However, families in rural areas and townships can also influence the women to deny a father, who is willing to care for their child, access to the child if the father doesn’t have money.

“So there is that commercial value that can deny the other parent access to the child,” Ndlovu said.

A senior lecturer at the Wits department of psychology, Dr Mzikazi Nduna, said denial of paternity was a double blow for women, and it was seen as bringing shame to the woman’s family.

“If the man denies the pregnancy and does not pay up, somehow it is seen as insulting the dignity of the woman’s family,” she said, adding that this often destroyed the woman’s confidence.