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PRIORITYMEASURE59
“Broaden the access available tomen, includingboys, adolescents and youngmen, to sexual and reproductive health-related information, counselling and services
and promote the equal participation of men in carework throughprogrammes for raisingmen’s awareness of gender equality, and foster
the development of newmasculinities.”
Possible lines of action
1. Incorporate gender equality aspects into basic education; 2. Mount systematic campaigns for cultural change to promote gender
equality in all social spheres, public and private, so as to help banish attitudes that reinforce gender stereotypes; 3. Take steps to promote
and facilitatemen’s participation in child-rearing activities, such as through paternal leave.
Targets
1. The basic education curriculum includes aspects relating to gender equality; 2. Child-rearing tasks are shared between men and
women; 3. Growing participationbymen in aspects relating to sexual and reproductive health.
Tentative indicators
1. Percentage of public and private schools that include gender equality in the basic education curriculum; 2. Number of government
campaigns conducted in the last two years to promote gender equality; 3. Number of paternity leaves extended tomaleworkers in private
enterprise or in the public sector.
Related instruments,
forums andmechanisms
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, article 5:
States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures: (a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of
prejudices and customary and all other practiceswhich are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or
on stereotyped roles for men and women;
article 10:
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination
against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of
equality of men and women:... (c): The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all
forms of education by encouraging coeducationand other types of educationwhichwill help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the
revision of textbooks and school programmes and the adaptation of teachingmethods.
Santo Domingo consensuses, agreement 51:
Eliminate sexism and gender stereotypes in education systems, books and teaching
materials, and eradicate biases in teachers’ perception of boys’ and girls’ performance in sciences, including mathematics and
technology, broadening the training of educators for equality andpromoting teaching practices free from prejudices and stereotypes.
Quito Consensus, agreement xx:
[F]ormulate and apply State policies conducive to the equitable sharing of responsibilities by women
and men in the family, overcoming gender stereotypes and recognizing the importance of care-giving and domestic work for economic
reproduction and thewell-beingof society as one of theways of overcoming the sexual divisionof labour
.
Comments
This priority measure places the emphasis on building new concepts of masculinity. The portion relating to men’s access to information,
counselling and sexual and reproductive health services is covered more specifically in other chapters of the Montevideo Consensus on
Population andDevelopment, in particular PMs 11, 12 and 41, while the portion relating to equal participation in care-giving is covered in
PM53, part of this same chapter.
