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André Coelho is a contributor to the Basic Income Earth Network. I asked about some perspectives on gender roles, as he is a friend and mentor. Here is the result.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I wanted to talk about masculinity in the 21st century. You have been a mentor for me through the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). What is BIEN, as an open plug? More to the interview, if you look at the gender roles where you live, what are they?
André Coelho: BIEN is a decentralized organization composed by people who promote, in their diversity, a core idea currently named basic income. BIEN holds a non-political defense and promotion of basic income, a progressive social policy which aims at de-linking income from employment, in a pursuit of freedom for all.
In Portugal, my place of birth and residence, there are still marked gender differences in society. Women access incomes, on average, lower than men. Women get sexually discriminated in day-to-day situations and are burdened, on average, with more workload than men, namely within the household. Domestic violence against women is still a reality in Portugal, in the dawn of the 21st century.
At work, there are also some gender roles that are still reinforced in Portuguese society. For example, it’s very hard to find a woman working in construction. Or in mechanical workshops. Or in computing (although here things are changing). On the other hand, in the caring world, one seldom finds men working. Nursing, cleaning, social assistance and kindergartens are examples where women clearly dominate.
Jacobsen: Are these gender roles more or less functional as we’re moving farther and farther into the 21st century?
Coelho: I understand that there are basic traits that incline men and women more to certain roles. Caring for children or elderly people come natural for women, given their motherhood instincts. This doesn’t mean men cannot fulfill these roles, but only that, at the time being, they do in fact come more naturally to women. Conversely, a woman can also learn and get trained to be a good construction worker, but their interest in such activities is usually low.
Fundamentally, however, I don’t feel men and women have specific or fixed roles to play in society. As we move further into the 21st century, as society gets transformed into something this species has never experienced before at a global scale, traditional gender roles get more and more irrelevant.
Jacobsen: As a leader in the basic income world, what are you taking into account when mentoring and writing, and leading?
Coelho: I don’t know how much of a leader I am, or if I can be called as such. However, I try to remain aware that nothing I may do, in the basic income world or within other spheres, is possible without the collaboration of other people. At Basic Income News (a part of BIEN’s activity), to give an example, we have a rotating team of more or less six people, who make it possible to publish every day, given our relatively high-quality standards. My role there is to make sure work flows in the smoothest way possible, and that everybody’s happy. That implies being thankful for all the help they provide, because nothing would be produced without these people’s goodwill, technical capacity and devoted efforts.
More specifically in mentoring and writing, my approach is usually to make people comfortable with our system at Basic Income News, explaining and supplying all the information they need to work properly and to their maximum satisfaction. I do not teach anyone to write, but instead show them where our quality standards are, and help them to bring their own writing style up to our standards, if necessary. For that we also have a team of volunteer reviewers, who are dedicated to reviewing text, style and content of every article that gets published through Basic Income News.
Jacobsen: Mentorship is important for older males to do for younger males. How do you go about it, e.g. in the BIEN world or elsewhere?
Coelho: I don’t see mentorship as a gender relationship (older males onto younger males). I have mentored males and females alike at Basic Income News, and of different ages. But as I see it, mentorship is mainly about making the other person feel he/she is at home, and that is achieved not only with information and technical aspects, but also with gratitude and flexibility. And being available when the need arises, so that the person gets integrated in the best possible way. Acknowledging mistakes is also part of a mentor’s job, because the more you recognize your humanity the more you reduce distance between people, and that is crucial for close and durable work relationships.
Jacobsen: What do you see as a healthier version of masculine identity, e.g. self-image and action?
Coelho: I feel that men in general are still somewhat mistaken into thinking they are in control. Or that they should be in control. That can make men possessive, over confident or afraid (to lose control). All those feelings are bad. A healthier version of man would be, first and foremost to let go control. That doesn’t mean living in chaos. It means letting go of dominating attitudes, micromanagement and strengthened rigidity. To turn pyramid hierarchies into lateral collaborative organizations. To stop looking at oneself as a stone wall, that supposedly can take any weight and any blow, to a more human-like self-image, where mistakes and compassion are possible.
Ironically, a more flexible and humble self makes it possible to grow into a strong, resilient person. On the contrary, an apparently all-mighty solid and rigid self turns men into fragile beings that fall apart once they crack – and they all eventually do. In civil engineering, as a kind of parallel, we know that very rigid materials are usually associated with fragile behaviour: they suddenly snap after an initial crack. Good construction materials are those rigid enough to withstand design loads, but flexible enough to accommodate displacements and not snap under high stresses. The same in people, and particularly men. In a nutshell: less rigidity, more flexibility. Long term resistance comes from resilience, and resilience comes from knowing who you are, away from artificial notions of control.
Jacobsen: Also, you’re an independent scholar. What topics are of interest to you? How does this build into your ability to function better in the professional world, e.g. mentoring, writing, and leading?
Coelho: At present my life doesn’t allow me to do research, keep up my professional engineering activity plus volunteering for BIEN or Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. That is, in the absence of a basic income. I would like to reduce my engineering hours and dedicate more time to research, music and volunteering. In research, particularly, I would like to continue my studies into construction and demolition waste management, as this is one often disregarded aspect of waste management, and one critical if we intend to go sustainable on this planet. Quality, meaningful research – in our monetized, all-business world, much research has lost its meaning and is of little use to society – is an important way not only to expand our knowledge, but also to inform policy into building a better society.
Sex also interests me. Like this it sounds too bold, but it truly interests me in an analytical sense, as it informs so much about who we are, men and women, conjugating almost every human trait. There are so many unconscious behaviours related to sex, the “animal” part of it and its interaction with our “cultural” side. We are the product of our evolutionary path, as much as we are the result of our own culture. We are at the edge of a great human transformation, one that will dictate if we go extinct, or if we will survive and live happily on this planet. And that is also related to how we understand, deal and accept our sexuality. The human being definitely interests me.
Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, André.
Coelho: I thank you for your interest in what I had to say, by answering your questions. Cheers.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
Scott, thanks for the interesting interview. I’ll look forward to learning more. I’ve been writing for GMP since its inception and enjoy learning about new programs and people. You can check out my work at http://www.MenAlive.com as well as here at GMP.