|
IWTC Women's GlobalNet
#249
Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide
March 04,
2004 THE ROLE OF MEN
AND BOYS IN ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY: SUMMARY OF REPORT OF
THE EXPERT GROUP MEETING
The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)
organized, in cooperation with the International Labour
Organization (ILO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an Expert Group Meeting on "the role of
men and boys in achieving gender equality" which took place
in Brasilia, Brazil from 21 to 24 October 2003.
INTRODUCTION:
The shift from a focus on women to the perspective of gender
relations created the opportunity to give increased
attention to men and boys. Over the years a stronger focus
has developed on the positive role men and boys can and do
play in promoting women’s empowerment in the home, the
community, the labour market and the workplace.
There is an increasing recognition that a focus on the role
of men and boys in the achievement of gender equality will
not only benefit women and girls as well as men and boys,
but can contribute effectively to the achievement of human
rights, the promotion of democracy, poverty eradication,
economic justice and other development goals. In particular
it has been emphasized that attention to men and boys can
make a major contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS;
indeed without the active involvement of men and boys it
will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the
international goals on HIV/AIDS.
The expert group meeting considered socialization and the
education process and the role of men and boys in relation
to the workplace and the economy, sexuality, health and
HIV/AIDS, domestic work and work/life balance, and gender
based violence. The experts adopted recommendations
addressed to Governments, international organizations,
including the United Nations, the private sector, including
employers, trade unions, civil society, religious
organizations, non-governmental organizations, sport groups,
armed forces and the police, research institutes, community
agencies, and the media. RATIONALE
The rationale for involving men and boys in gender equality
is manifold – and will continue to develop and expand as
goals are realized and different gender and social
arrangements emerge around the world. Men and boys must be
brought into the framework of strategy, policy and micro
politics of gender equality programmes.
In the formal economy, there is enormous pressure on men to
spend longer hours in the workplace. In some occupational
groups this results in a life practically consumed by
"work". The negative side to a poor "work/family life
balance" is that there is little time to share with partners
and children, and it is difficult to be a good father in any
way except as economic provider.
Conventional divisions between men’s and women’s roles and
expectations also narrow men’s cultural experience. In
education, for instance, boys and men predominate as
students in "technical" courses and natural sciences, but
are underrepresented in humanities, creative arts, social
sciences and human services. Power oriented masculinities
are often associated with ethnocentrism, rejection of other
cultures and the maintenance of inflexible and rigid
barriers to change.
Research on violence, both personal and collective, has
shown a persisting connection of violence to men as a group,
and specifically to dominance-oriented masculinities in
hierarchical gender systems. Achieving gender equality will
not totally end violence, which has many roots. But moving
towards gender equality is an important step towards
reducing violence. Men, who are victims of many forms of
personal and institutional violence, primarily at the hands
of other men, have a great deal to gain from a more peaceful
non-violent world.
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES
The experts proposed that the following set of principles
should govern policies and programmes addressing the role of
men and boys in achieving gender equality.
1). Emphasize the active stake that men and boys have in
gender equality, that is, the gains to men and boys.
2). Develop integrated gender policies rather than separate
and parallel policies for women and men.
3). Recognize that working with men and boys toward the goal
of gender equality faces short-term constraints and risks,
but offers the potential for significant progress toward
achieving gender equality in the long run.
4). Work with men as allies to women in achieving gender
equality through collaboration with, and accountability to,
women’s organizations and feminist movements.
5). Ensure that funding for gender equality work with men
and boys is not at the expense of existing or future funding
for empowerment work with women and girls.
6). Define specific roles for men and boys in developing and
implementing policies and programmes for gender equality.
7). Work with the men in positions of greatest power and
influence (as local and national leaders, and policy makers)
to ensure their commitment to and action on promoting gender
equality goals.
8). Recognize the well-being of men and boys as a legitimate
aim of gender equality measures.
9). Recognize the diversity of men’s situation and assess
the specific situations, interests, identities and
privileges of different groups of men and boys and address
their specific needs.
10). Acknowledge that while men are responsible for gender
norms that damage the lives of women and men they also
suffer under these norms in different ways.
11). Build on existing resistance to and questioning of
gender norms that perpetuate gender inequality by some men
and boys.
12). Develop policies, programmes, practices and processes
that both hold men accountable for their roles in structures
of male power and at the same time assist men in learning
about and healing from the harmful effects of gender norms
in their own lives.
13). Based on men’s multiple roles in relation to violence
(including as perpetrators, survivors, witnesses and
bystanders), mobilize men to end the interpersonal and
institutional violence that sustains and results from gender
inequality.
14). Recognize sexuality as a fundamental dimension of human
relations in which gender inequality is often expressed and
enforced. Respond to the complexity and diversity of
meanings, desires, practices and identities in men’s sexual
lives. Address the connections between misogyny and
homophobia in the construction of harmful norms of male and
female sexuality.
15). Work with the capacities and potential of men and boys
to be actively involved in achieving gender equality.
Positive aspects of traditional male roles can be drawn
upon, such as strength, courage and leadership.
16). Ground gender equality work with men and boys in the
context of local cultures and traditions, as well as
community practices and structures, that are supportive of
equal relationships between women and men.
17). Ensure that research on issues related to men and boys
and the goal of gender equality include participatory or
community-controlled research, with mechanisms to develop
the capacities of communities to design and conduct their
own research.
18). Connect gender equality measures involving men and boys
with a general framework of human rights and social justice.
Within this framework, use shared experiences of multiple
forms of oppression to promote solidarity between women and
men for social justice and gender equality.
The full report can be downloaded at:
<http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/men-boys2003/>
IWTC Women's GlobalNet is a production of:
International Women's Tribune Centre
777 United Nations Plaza
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: (1-212) 687-8633
Fax: (1-212) 661-2704
Email: <iwtc@iwtc.org>
Web: <http://www.iwtc.org>
PLEASE NOTE:
For back issues of IWTC Women's GlobalNet, go to our website
at
www.iwtc.org and click on either Women's GlobalNet under Resources,
or What's New?
You can subscribe to this list at any time by sending a
blank message to:
<iwtc-womensglobalnet-subscribe@igc.topica.com>
You can unsubscribe to this list at any time by sending a
blank message to:
<iwtc-womensglobalnet-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com>
WOMEN, INK.
For quality, cutting-edge publications on women and
development by, for and about women worldwide, write for
Women, Ink's 2002/2003 catalogue, or view it at : <http://www.womenink.org>.
Contact Women, Ink. at 777 United Nations Plaza, New York,
NY 10017, USA.
Tel: Yasna Uberoi (1-212) 687-8633 ext 212 or Mary Wong
(1-212) 687-8633 ext 204. Fax: (1-212) 661-2704. E-mail: <wink@iwtc.org>
To subscribe to the Women, Ink. monthly bulletin "BookLink",
which features new titles constantly being added to the
Women, Ink. collection, write to:
<wink@iwtc.org>
WOMEN, INK. IS A SERVICE OF IWTC |
|