Engaging Men and Boys To Achieve Gender Equality

This summary document discusses the proceedings of a seminar held May 29 2007 in Washington, DC, United States (US), to discuss the importance of working with men and boys to promote healthy lifestyles among women and men, learn what is happening in the field with this approach, and develop a consensus on how to move forward.


From the Executive Summary:

"Based on evidence presented at this seminar, it is clear that working with men to promote gender equality can be an effective way to improve health and fight disease among both women and men. The Stepping Stones project in South Africa, which uses participatory learning to build more gender-equitable relationships between men and women, found that both men and women reported increased condom use, less transactional sex, less substance abuse and greater communications among couples. Program H in Brazil successfully has used group education, community-based media and male-friendly health services to promote gender-equitable attitudes and improve reproductive and sexual health practices. In the United States, a Coaching Boys Into Men program, which uses mentoring approaches and media campaigns to address gender-based violence, resulted in two of three participating fathers reporting that they had talked to their sons – and 63 percent to their daughters – about the importance of healthy, violence-free relationships.


Despite these and other success stories, such interventions to date are limited in their scale and reach. A review of existing programs demonstrates that most programs which target men and boys for health care interventions use one of three approaches, or a combination of these. They: (1) serve men as clients, (2) involve men in improving women’s health, or (3) work directly with men and boys to promote a positive shift in gender norms, away from attitudes and behaviors that undermine women’s and their own health and well-being. Seminar participants reported that the third approach has had the farthest reach, and shows promise for scaling up.


Throughout the day’s discussions, participants underscored that success in health interventions for both women and men depends on changing social norms around masculinity that undermine men’s and women’s health. This message emerged as a key recommendation for moving forward in program and funding efforts.


That said, participants agreed that changing harmful gender norms – while important – is not sufficient to bring about the necessary changes in health care to curb rising HIV and gender-violence rates or otherwise improve reproductive and sexual health. Stakeholders also need to build partnerships across organizations working with women or men, and establish links with other social justice movements. Advocates of the men-and-boys approach should be judicious with how they promote gender equality, eschewing polarizing or divisive language that can pit men against women, and they should promote technologies, such as microbicides, that can contribute to greater gender equality. Finally, donors should support the development of professionals who can take the men-and-boys approach forward, the dissemination of the best models, and the development of policies supporting gender equality. Moreover, donors should support programs and researchers to identify, evaluate and prioritize a wide range of program models."


The following recommendations from the seminar are grouped according to their key audiences and can be found discussed in greater detail in the document:


"Program Designers and Managers

1. Change social norms around masculinity that undermine men’s and women’s health.
2. Seek out and build partnerships among organizations that work primarily with women and girls, and organizations working with men and boys.
3. Programs working to involve men and boys in the promotion of gender equality should establish links with concurrent social movements for social justice.

Advocates

1. Develop thoughtful and clear language to promote gender equality between men and women, boys and girls.
2. Identify and promote specific technologies that help expand men’s and women’s options for protecting themselves and relating to their sexual partners.

Donors

1. Support expansion of the professional cadre of workers who are able to take this approach forward.
2. Provide support for dissemination of the best models to organizations, which have the capacity to scale them up, and to governments for policy development.
3. Support programs and researchers to continuously identify, evaluate and prioritize viable and diverse programmatic models."