Role of men in gender equality

“Role of men in gender equality” is the title of a EU-wide study which was conducted by L&R Social Research in a consortium with Dissens (Germany, Berlin), INBAS (Belgium, Brussels) and abz*austria (Austria, Vienna). The study aimed to identify the different roles of men in the gender equality process in the EU: what framework conditions favour men’s political commitment to gender equality and a gender-equality oriented behaviour?

For this purpose the following three areas were analyzed:

• the role of men in the working process (key words: participation of men in female-dominated professions, turning away from the full-time work focus, support of female career paths)
• the role of men in the areas of household and reproduction (key words: equal participation in the areas of household and reproduction, possibilities to increase participation of men in providing care, positive effects on men)
• the role of men in the field of gender equality policy (key words: approaches to promote male participation, resources for women’s/gender equality/men’s projects, motives of change actors and gender equality resistant groups).

Renowned European researchers from the fields of men’s and gender studies form the core research team that examined this subject: Jeff Hearn (University of Linköping, Sweden, and Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland), Øystein Gullvåg Holter (Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo), Majda Hrzeniak (Peace Institute, Ljubljana), Elli and Christian Scambor (Männerberatung Graz), Sophia Belghiti-Mahut (Université de Montpellier).

In addition, national experts from all EU and EFTA countries provided an overview of the current state of male participation in the respective countries as well as examples of good practice. For the first time research into how men can be successfully mobilized for the cause of gender equality was done on a Europe-wide scale.

Within this Europe-wide study, L&R Social Research was responsible for project leadership and management (together with Dissens, Berlin) and the preparation of data from all over the EU in order to show by means of a European comparison how gender equality in terms of male participation can be assessed in the different EU and EFTA countries.

This study was framed by three workshops and a final conference, which promoted the identification of practice-relevant recommendations for the participation of men in equality issues through a discussion of the results with politicians, NGOs, social partners and experts.