The Full Story: Women and Men Discuss Gender Relations in Rural Malawi

Enid Schatz, University of Pennsylvania

Through proximate questions about women's situation, the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change (MDIC) household survey (Watkins and Zulu, 1998), adds to demographic research on gender. The quantitative data, however, are limited conceptually and in scope. As with many demographic surveys that focus on women's attitudes about gender relations and fertility, this survey restricted these questions to the women's questionnaire. Although it makes sense to ask women about their own situation, only gauging women's attitudes skews researchers' perceptions of gender relations. In order to fully understand gender dynamics within communities, it is vital to learn about men's attitudes as well. We conducted 91 depth interviews with a sub-sample of MDIC respondents - women and their spouses. In this paper, we compare how these couples qualitatively discuss and portray gender relations in rural Malawi - producing a fuller story than the quantitative data. In addition, we suggest future quantitative measures for men's and women's questionnaires.