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Involving men and boys in promoting gender equality

Wikis > Involving men and boys in promoting gender equality

This article is the 11th in a series of articles related to Wikiprogress.

Wikigender has organised an online discussion on “ Engaging Men and Boys to Transform Discriminatory Social Norms Online Discussion ” together with Sonke Gender Justice Network , Men for Gender Equality Gender Equality in Sweden (Män för Jämställdhet) (Män för Jämställdhet) and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It is the first time that Wikigender hosted a discussion on such a topic and from the very diverse range of answers, we saw that there was clearly a need to engage in a dialogue on this issue. This online discussion benefited from a truly rich exchange and perspectives that showed that while we often talk in terms of “what about including women, the other half of the planet?”, we should rebalance the way in which we frame our gender equality discourse and seek to include men as “the other half of the planet that counts too” – if we are to achieve concrete results in improving the well-being of our societies and eliminating gender inequalities. This article presents the emerging themes coming out of the discussion and also focuses on the particular area of gender-based violence. It also uses the opportunity to link with our sister platform Wikichild, which focuses on child well-being.

Main points for involving men and boys to promote gender equality Engaging Men and Boys to Transform Discriminatory Social Norms Online Discussion

The key ideas that came out of the discussion, available in more detail in the summary report, include:

The discussion around involving men is still at its very initial stages: more efforts are needed at all levels

  • We need to eliminate gender stereotypes (equal responsibilities in the home, parental responsibilities) as well as some persisting discriminatory social norms (for example, early marriage)
  • More education and training for young boys and girls about gender roles, expectations and women’s autonomy – especially from an early age
  • Whole communities need to be educated about gender equality and its benefits.

Men and boys have the power to change

  • We need to rethink ideas of masculinity as it is a very complex concept and it needs to be understood to be able to engage men and boys adequately
  • Men should be more involved in areas such as reproductive health, gender-based violence via a wide range of approaches: gender-transformative programmes, peer education among young men, non-formal learning methods, workshops, technology and social media tools, positive testimonies, leadership models and listening to and rethinking ideas of masculinity
  • Strong consensus on the importance of engaging in a dialogue with men and boys about issues that also concern them, and for programmes targeting women to also consider the role of men and boys in addressing inequalities.

Involving men and boys in ending violence against women and girls

25 November was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence Campaign. Next year’s themne for the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will be on the Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, and the review theme will focus on the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS. The online discussion was therefore an opportunity to also focus on examples and best practices of what can be done in this area.

Educating men on the differences between men and women, relationships and mutual respect

This should start at an early age and within home. One view was that perpetrators of violence often grow up in situations of conflict and abuse in the home and replicate these models of violence between their parents in their own relationships as they grow up. One participant who ran awareness-raising workshops in a prison in Nicaragua recognised that despite the enthusiasm of imprisoned men to change, it is difficult to make change happen for them because of the violence they experience themselves on a daily basis in the prison from other prisoners or from the guards. Two participants agreed that prevention work is the most efficient way, especially with young people or grown-up
men that are not in prison.

Even if most perpetrators of violence are men, not all men are violent…

…and many would like to do something about it. Those men should be engaged to educate male perpetrators on issues such as family and care giving. Many experiences showed that if engaged strategically, men can change from being violent to being respectful towards their spouses. Such programmes should be further implemented by donors, civil societies, UN agencies, international NGOs and many others to achieve the desired results. Another participant stressed that all spheres of the government need to be engaged to organise talks about masculinity and include such talks in the education curriculum of schools.

Engaging men and boys in reproductive health

A participant explained that in Botswana, the gender and development discourse has mostly focused on women as victims, while men were often portrayed as a problem – but recently the government and other stakeholders have started to engage men and boys more via a number of programmes in areas such as sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and domestic violence.

Examples of programmes and initatives

  • One contribution from the White Ribbon Campaign in Namibia asked that men take responsibility for preventing violence against women, that they intervene against the violence of other men and address the root causes of violence
  • Partners for Prevention (P4P) is also doing great work, using primary prevention programming through community mobilisation and group education. P4P also identified a framework for action to prevent gender-based violence in 7 key action areas called PREVENT: Produce and apply evidence; Respond to, support and protect those who experience violence; Empower women and girls; Value community engagement; Educate youth and adolescents; Nurture healthy family relationships; and Target alcohol and drug abuse. P4P also use social media to raise awareness and develop capacities on gender-based violence prevention, in combination of on ground activities; mass media in combination with theatre; school-based programmes; film production and discussion creation; the transformation of masculinities through awareness-raising; working with religious, cultural or political male leaders to change their perspectives; and male counselling with perpetrators
  • One participant gave the example of an unusual and interesting experiment that took place in Colombia, during the administration of a former mayor in Bogotá: the mayor had decided that there would be a day in which only women would be allowed to go out at night, leaving the men and boys at home. The measure was quite shocking and perhaps for this, it made many people aware of gender inequality and indirectly it sensitised men about the issue of gender-based violence
  • Another example came from the Philippines, with a community-based project on “Men’s Responsibilities in Gender and Development”, where men and boys learnt to accept the concept and values of gender and reproductive health through a discussion on domestic violence. Some important lessons learnt were that it is essential to have voluntary men as “gender champions” to help raise awareness; involve women’s and youth organisations as well; and include government officials in information campaigns and trainings
  • Another example is HOPEM in Mozambique that challenges social gender norms through a variety of programmes such as “Art without violence”, which fights against gender-based violence through artistic expression or “Star Man”, which aims to eliminate gender-based violence through the testimonies and training of perpetrators of violence
  • In Indonesia , one participant mentioned the Oxfam Australia programme working with local communities from the Nusa Tenggara Timor and Nusa Tenggara Barat Indonesian provinces on issues such as gender-based violence and fatherhood, which brought some success: for example husbands started to help their wives with domestic choresand managed to contain their emotions and anger in some difficult situations
  • One participant referred to the “ Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence ” and said that we should be putting pressure on states to sign and/or ratify the convention.

References

See Also

  • See [Wikigender Progress Series|Wikigender Progress Series]
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