Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions
Recommendations (general)
Recommendations in respect of socialisation and education
Recommendations in respect of gender equality in the workplace
Recommendations for domestic responsibilities

Traditional gender roles and stereotypes continue to have a strong influence on the division of labour between men and women at home, in the workplace and in society at large, and tend to continue a vicious circle of obstacles for achieving gender equality. In the past three decades, women's employment rates have increased significantly and faster than men's, but not equally in all sectors and occupations. Women tend to be overrepresented in specific areas of activity related to traditional gender roles such as care, education, cleaning, retail etc., and to be underrepresented at higher levels of occupation. Breaking down cultural barriers to ensure that women and men follow a more diverse range of careers and to encourage their participation across the labour market is a complex task given the numerous socio-economic factors to be taken into consideration. It is nevertheless crucial to desegregate labour markets in order to achieve occupational gender equality.
While there are many examples of men's support of gender equality, it is also clear that significant resistance remains. Such resistance is based on the patriarchal dividend to men acquired from gender inequalities, including material benefits and power. Men as a group receive formal benefits such as higher incomes and informal benefits, including care and domestic service from women in the family. If social definitions of masculinity include being the breadwinner and being "strong", then men may oppose women's professional progress because it makes men seem less worthy of respect. In many parts of the world ideologies exist that justify men's supremacy on grounds of religion, biology, cultural tradition or organizational mission, for example in the military. These ideologies do not disappear with the advance of equality perspectives; anti-equality perspectives may adapt to changing social conditions and be revived or emerge in new forms.

To realize men's interests in change, a majority of men and boys must be persuaded that the benefits under the current gender order (the current system of gender relations in society) are less valuable than many now think - or that they come at too high a cost. Moving towards gender equality requires a basic shift from a gender consciousness built on dichotomy and privilege to a gender consciousness built on diversity and reciprocity. There are many positive trends in this direction, and many men who support them.

The time is ripe for involving men and boys. Economic restructuring and the shifts in global economic environments have also created circumstances that have forced men to rethink their roles and positions within existing economic structures and created a unique opportunity for new dialogues between men and women.
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. Hegemonic ideologies of unequal power such as patriarchy suppress both women and men. Patriarchal ideologies eclipse the human capacities of men to care and love. Men pay significant costs within the current structure of gender relations.
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.

The workplace is a major site of inequality between women and men, and therefore a major arena for men to participate in promoting gender equality. Embracing gender equality requires a redefinition of "work" itself, to include the informal sector and domestic labour as well as labour in the formal economy. This redefinition addresses the structural inequality that comes from valuing the private and public spheres differently.

Outlining the costs of gender inequality for men does not remove the fact that men are predominantly advantaged within patriarchal systems. It is clear therefore that involving men and boys is not a simple matter of requesting their participation in creating gender equality, especially if this means giving up the privileged positions they occupy within patriarchal structures. Seeking the active involvement of men and boys will entail a profound shift in the basis of societal structures. It should not, however, be assumed that such societal change will mean replacing one set of unequal power structures with another. Rather it involves redefining democracy and social justice in a way that creates a new social formation and opens the possibility of another gender-just way to be human.

Research in all EU Member States shows that, the great majority of senior managers, both in the corporate sector and in public sector organizations, are men. Using managerial authority, and managerial capacity for initiative, is one of the most immediately available ways for men to promote economic and workplace gender equality. At the same time, the majority of union leadership positions are held by men so union initiatives are also important ways for men to act towards gender equality.

Many gender inequalities have their bases in imbalances in domestic work and in the relationship between paid work and family life. Men as well as women suffer negative consequences from these imbalances, and have much to gain from better contact with children and inclusion in family life. There is wide recognition of a need to increase the participation of men in domestic work, to adopt family support policies, and to encourage reconciliation of family and working life for both men and women.

There are clear benefits for men from involvement in creating a gender-equal society. In a world of gender equality, there will be less risk for men in experiencing and expressing the complete range of human emotions. Men will be able to enjoy more intimate, trusting and respectful relations with women and other men. Men will have more opportunity for sharing the care and contributing to the growth of young children - both as fathers and as professional caregivers. The possibility of a richer personal life and a fuller humanity is an important benefit of transformed and more equal gender relations. Moving toward gender equality does not mean loss of masculinity. It does mean that men as a group will in fact be able to share and be part of a broader, richer cultural experience. Another key potential benefit for men from gender equality is to live in a world where arbitrary inequalities of all kinds are rejected.

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Recommendations

We held as part of the project a regular session with participants where we simply asked them to make a list of recommendations that they would make to policy makers and politicians. The following list is a summary of the results of this participative exercise. The list is grouped into general recommendations and those specific to the three themes:

General:

Emphasize the active stake that men and boys have in gender equality, that is, the gains to men and boys.
Develop integrated gender policies rather than separate and parallel policies for women and men ensuring that when a "gender perspective" is adopted in policies, attention is given to relations between women and men rather than to women and men separately.
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.
Work with men as allies to women in achieving gender equality through collaboration with, and accountability to, women's organizations and feminist movements.
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.
Define specific roles for men and boys in developing and implementing policies and programmes for gender equality.
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.
Recognize the well-being of men and boys as a legitimate aim of gender equality measures.
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.
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.
Build on existing resistance to and questioning of gender norms that perpetuate gender inequality by some men and boys.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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Recommendations in respect of socialisation and education:

Carry out critical reviews of curricula, including at the preschool, primary and secondary level, to include ways of promoting gender equality that engage boys as well as girls;
Develop training for teachers, administrative staff and other groups dealing with children and youth (for example, health and social service professionals and police), to promote ways to engage boys and young men in gender equality. This should include sessions in which adult staff examine their own views about gender equality and assumptions about boys and male youth;
Value, in school reform efforts, gender equality as an educational outcome which is as important as basic literacy and numeracy;
Include messages and activities targeting boys and young men and promoting gender equality within existing sexuality education, HIV/AIDS prevention education and family life education curricula;
Strengthen use of mass media campaigns (using television, music videos, billboards and other), for positive, non-violent messages about manhood, including participation in domestic and household tasks and caregiving, and respect for women;
Promote the engagement of young people in action for gender equality. Since there are many young men who already question gender inequalities, change agents already exist. Young people themselves can advise on, and create, programmes and campaigns addressed to boys and young men;
Incorporate a lifecycle approach in strategies for gender equality education. This includes, among others, early childhood education, an appropriate approach in adolescence when the potential for critical thinking provides the opportunity to question gender stereotypes, and skills-based approaches during the transition from school to work.

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Recommendations in respect of gender equality in the workplace

Use legislation, organizational restructuring and industrial bargaining to reduce gender segmentation in the workplace, both in public sector employment and in the private sector;
Use legislation, regulatory authority and wage bargaining to reduce income inequality between men and women;
Ensure support from men in leadership positions in all types of organizations - public sector, corporations, unions and community organizations - including through role-modeling and publicly endorsing gender equality in their workplaces;
Define the fiduciary responsibility of employers for promoting gender equality;
Introduce or expand specific parental leave policies, providing for both women and men;
Frame "family-friendly" employment policies in such a way as to encourage men, as well as women, to use employment flexibility;
Design promotion policies so as to create incentives for male employees to share domestic work and care;
Encourage the recruitment and training of men for occupations involving "care" work (for example, early childhood education and nursing), while at the same time ensuring that this does not have negative consequences for women's employment;
Examine public sector budgets for the specific impact of public expenditures on men as well as women, especially for the incentives or disincentives they create for men to support gender equality;
Review economic and workplace policies for the way they define men's contexts (for example, as breadwinners for families) and create incentives or disincentives for men to support gender equality;
Encourage mass media to communicate messages about broader, less segregated economic roles for both men and women, for instance by reducing the stereotyped presentation of men's and women's work in advertising;
Develop and use gender sensitive policies in the informal economy, to redefine the roles and responsibilities of both women and men;
Encourage trade unions to define gender equality as a central part of economic democracy, and expand the traditional concept of collective bargaining to address care work and gender equality issues for both men and women;
Encourage trade unions to address the gender gap in representation and leadership positions in these organizations.

Given the crucial role that stereotyped gender roles play in the labour market, partners also identified the following kinds of specific actions that need to be taken:

Promoting non-gender biased education in schools, universities as well as efficient and non-stereotyped careers advice services, for students and those already at work, to enable individuals to make better informed education and career choices. Encouraging pupils, students and parents to consider all the available career options for girls and boys at an early stage. Examples of practical tools to do so include:

Organising open days in companies for girls in order to show that pre-conceived ideas about women's compared with men's jobs are not justified in practice and inform them about career options they may not have considered otherwise;
Encouraging parents to promote companies as a place for their daughters to pursue careers;
Cooperation programmes with public and/or education authorities to raise awareness on labour markets needs;
Participation in career fairs.

Making a special effort to attract girls and young women into technical and scientific professions which can also help address skills and labour shortages hampering economic growth. Examples of practical tools to do so include:

Setting targets to increase the number of girls taking up apprenticeships in technical and scientific professions as a way to step up female recruitment in the future;
Sending women engaged in technical or scientific occupations as "ambassadors" into schools to inform and raise awareness of girls about opportunities of technical or scientific professions.

Promoting the recruitment and retention of women and men with adequate skills at the enterprise level in sectors and occupations where they are underrepresented. Acknowledge, and where possible, enrich the skills content of female occupations so as to offer better career paths and opportunities for women in female dominated sectors. Examples of practical tools to do so include:

Reviewing the way in which job titles, job descriptions and advertisements are formulated to enhance their attractiveness for women and making managers who recruit aware of the issue;
Adapting the workplace to enable a greater gender mix at work (ergonomics, local services);

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Recommendations for domestic responsibilities

Promoting local campaigns that make the social importance of domestic work and care work visible, as well as the need to redistribute these tasks amongst women and men. They should be a dual objective: to generate debate and to raise awareness.

Use financial and social policy to improve the balance between work and family life, and encourage men to make an equal contribution to domestic work;
Expand paternal leave provisions;
Create disincentives for employers to demand overtime work;
Create a legal structure for permanent part-time work and incentives for men to use it;
Develop aspects of family law that enable men to be active partners in the lives of children and dependents; review and make appropriate changes in adoption policies and the care of orphans and adopted children;
Take measures to help teenage and young fathers be involved in the support and care of their children while continuing their education and training. Such measures include:

Requiring education and training institutions to design their programmes and schedules to facilitate carework by teenage and young fathers without breaks in study; and
Structuring health services concerning pregnancy and early childhood to promote the participation of young fathers;

Recognize workers' childcare obligations in setting terms of employment and recognize workers' childcare obligations in setting terms of employment and schedules of work;
Include incentives for childcare contributions in recruitment and promotion policies;
Build into collective bargaining strategies the possibility for men's involvement in care work.

In summary therefore, it is certainly necessary to continue promoting the existing and planned measures at different levels for conciliation of work and family life. The effects of these measures on a more fair distribution of care tasks should be carefully monitored. Some measures seem to be crucial for stimulating men to take a fair share in caring.

On macro level it is important to develop individual (paid) leave arrangements (see e.g. Belgium) and specific paternity leave arrangements (home alone). But also more general measures such as the right for temporary part time work as it was introduced in the Netherlands could have a real influence on a more just division of paid work and care work.

On meso level, one should not forget the importance of good provisions, but also a stimulating culture at the level of work organisations.

On micro level one should mention the chain approach and the promotion of tolerance. But also mobilising professionals can be very helpful. This could be done in two ways. One way is to stimulate that more men accede to certain professions (health care, baby clinics, child care, home care, household services). The other is to give attention in the training of these professionals to the role of men in the care for household and family. Young parents are absolutely sensitive for professionals systematically asking for the active presence of the father.

The appeal on men to fully play their role as fathers is an important intermediate step towards a more fair distribution of all tasks between men and women.

But men will not only have to play a more important role in the care for children. They will have to get more involved in all household tasks. To call upon men as fathers because of the importance of that role for their personal development and that of other family members, bears the risk that men will continue to leave the less pleasant household tasks to their partner: "this is not why I took up parental leave!" In the longer run one should publicly reflect about masculinity and femininity in relation to the division of tasks. Diversity and freedom of choice are key in such reflections. The question is no longer IF men will have to take up certain tasks. The question will be about a desirable division of tasks between partners, man and women, within households.

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