Examining the construction of masculinities and how they influence the perpetration and normalization of gender based violence in urban informal settlements

Abstract

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a significant public health and human rights concern globally, with women disproportionately affected by its consequences. In Uganda, GBV continues to be prevalent despite ongoing interventions aimed at promoting gender equality and protecting vulnerable populations. Existing evidence suggests that socially constructed masculinities play a critical role in shaping gender relations and influencing violence against women. However, limited research has explored how masculinities are constructed within urban informal settlements and how the specific social and economic conditions of these settings contribute to the perpetration and normalization of GBV. This study examined the construction of masculinities and their influence on the perpetration and normalization of gender-based violence in Katanga informal settlement, Kampala, Uganda. The study adopted a qualitative research design grounded in an interpretivist paradigm. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with fifteen purposively selected participants, including community members, key informants, and a survivor of gender-based violence. Participants represented diverse social and occupational backgrounds. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, through which themes and subthemes were generated from participants' narratives. The findings revealed that masculinities in Katanga were shaped not only by family socialization and cultural expectations but also by the everyday realities of life in an informal settlement. Poverty, unemployment, unstable incomes, overcrowded living conditions, limited privacy, informal employment, peer networks, and exposure to alcohol and community conflict influenced how boys and men learned and performed masculinity. Men were strongly expected to provide for their families despite limited economic opportunities, creating a form of masculinity characterized by pressure to demonstrate resilience, self-reliance, toughness, and authority under conditions of economic insecurity. Boys and young men also learned masculine behaviours through peer groups and informal social spaces such as boda boda stages, garages, football groups, and other community gathering places. Provider masculinity, authority-based masculinity, and control-oriented masculinity emerged as dominant forms, while economic frustration and threatened provider identities sometimes encouraged men to reassert authority through control, aggression, or violence. Community acceptance of domestic violence as a private matter, women's economic dependence, and alcohol consumption further contributed to the normalization and persistence of GBV. However, the study also identified emerging positive masculinities characterized by mutual respect, shared decision-making, emotional maturity, and non-violent behaviour. The study concludes that masculinities within Katanga are shaped by the interaction between traditional gender expectations and the particular social and economic pressures of informal settlement life. Addressing GBV therefore requires interventions that respond not only to harmful gender norms but also to the conditions of poverty, unemployment, insecure livelihoods, and peer influence that shape masculine identities within urban informal settlements. The study recommends community sensitization, promotion of positive masculinities, livelihood and economic empowerment initiatives, strengthening women's economic independence, improved survivor support systems, and alcohol abuse prevention programmes.