TWO out of three Jamaican men who experience paternity fraud continue to take care of the child despite the shocking and bitterly disappointing discovery.

That’s according to data mined by social anthropologist and senior lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr Herbert Gayle.

According to Dr Gayle, who was the guest speaker at the annual Outstanding Father’s Award Ceremony put on by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Bureau of Gender Affairs, that bit of data is testament that Jamaican men are not as monstrous as portrayed.

“If these men in Jamaica were not among the most beautiful creatures on Earth, the last bit of data I am giving you would not be accurate. Two out of three Jamaican men who experience paternity fraud continue to take care of the child. I have found that bit of data in no other country. Love and respect them, give them their due,” Gayle told the function at which 60 outstanding fathers were recognised and honoured.

Paternity fraud occurs when a mother — either mistakenly or deliberately — misidentifies a man as the biological father of her child. A 2023 study conducted by researchers at Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and published in the International Journal of Current Research in Education, Culture and Society, interviewed just over 1,000 men about paternity fraud. It found that 4.8 per cent (51) of respondents stated that if they were victims of paternity fraud — in colloquial terms, given a jacket, the name assigned to children who are subject to paternal discrepancy — they would abuse the mother [verbally or physically].

Gayle has, in the meantime, encouraged women to understand and honour the unique role men play.

“When we were collecting data in the Eastern Caribbean, women said to us, ‘I am the head of the household but don’t write it on the paper mek him see,’ and I thought how ridiculous we had gone without understanding that we are simply partners…remember you can’t father my sisters in the same breath that the men can’t mother, and any day you realise that you have developed cojones [testicles] and start fathering, stop…Every single woman in every data set who says, ‘I am the man in the house,’ is as miserable as the words spoken,” he told the audience.

“We have to start working together; we have to start appreciating each other and we are gonna slow down on the social media about who wutliss and who nuh wutliss, and all kinds a stuff,” Gayle said further.

In emphasising the neurobiological differences between males and females, the social anthropologist said: “We are different…I want you to understand that each of us brings something to the table and each of us needs to be present.”

In noting that children make different demands of fathers, distinct from those made of their mothers, Gayle said, “Children ask of fathers just four things: you will protect me because God made you 17.2 per cent bigger than a woman on average; you will lift me because you are 24 per cent stronger; you will provide for me because you can’t get pregnant, you have no biological excuse not to be employed, and number four [be a role model].”

In pointing out how critical the modelling role played by a father is to children, Gayle added: “If you [mother] are a medical doctor and your partner is a medical doctor, 75.1 per cent of the children will choose the father’s career even if they are equal.

“Twenty-five per cent of scammers, gunmen and extortionists, their children still want to be like fathers. If you are a good father, 75 per cent of your children will want to be like you. Therefore, the idea of being a role model as a man is extremely critical. I want to beg you all not to try and turn your boys into girls, because they are not,” Gayle said.

He also encouraged Jamaican parents to forge partnerships in raising their children, while urging women to see men as more than cash dispensers.

“I want to introduce you to an expletive called partnership. It’s a very bad word; if you say it a lot you could be arrested because people genuinely don’t want to partner. Did you know that only 18 per cent of Jamaicans have partnerships? Do you know which is the most popular type of relationship? The ATM [automated teller machine]; why yuh nuh just bring di money come and puddung?…And the men embrace being ATMs and a lot of our women love it,” Gayle stated.

According to the leading anthropologist, homes in which parents partner are way less likely to see conflict or violence as against home in which partnerships are non-existent.

“Twenty-five per cent of every home you see around you has some serious conflict that ends in physical harm. The ones in which the men go to work and go all day, and come home and hand over the money and does not question [anything] until he is fed up, has 44 per cent conflict. The ones in which the men are stripped of power and the money have 32 per cent violence, and the ones in which they sit together and work out how things are going to be and they are best friends have three per cent problems,” Gayle declared.

“Partnerships require people to negotiate and work out everything, and respect each other’s views and value each other’s lives and work together as a team,” he said.

Father’s Day is being celebrated on Sunday, June 15 this year. The day is being celebrated by the Bureau of Gender Affairs under the theme ‘The Power of Presence: Fathers who make a difference’.