Senegal’s ‘Schools for Husbands’ Spotlight Government and Cultural Barriers to Maternal Health

In Dakar, Senegal, a United Nations-backed program dubbed "schools for husbands" attempts to reshape traditional gender roles to improve maternal health outcomes. This initiative persuades men—typically the primary decision-makers in households—to support their wives during pregnancy and childbirth. While such efforts may seem commendable on the surface, they expose deep-rooted cultural and governmental failures that no outside intervention can fully fix. In countries like Senegal where extended family hierarchies dominate, women often cannot access life-saving reproductive care without their husband’s approval. This gatekeeping results in delays or avoidance of hospital births, contributing sharply to high maternal mortality rates—237 deaths per...