Fathers for many young women have had a massive influence on their lives and are great role models when it comes to shaping their opinions on issues of religion, justice, morality, education, and for many, their sense of humour.
Father-child relationships, in all communities and at all stages of a child’s life, have a profound and wide-ranging impact that last a lifetime, whether those relationships are positive, negative, or indifferent. Men’s participation as fathers and as caregivers also matters tremendously in women’s lives. And, it positively affects the lives of men themselves.
For this reason, it is evident first-hand that fathers can play a critical role in women’s empowerment. This is not just because most men want to see their daughters grow up in a world that offers the same opportunities to them as to their sons, it is also because fathers with more gender-equitable attitudes are more likely to pass on those values to their children, their family, and their community.
Last week, a report was launched at the Women Deliver Conference in Vancouver, Canada, entitled “State of the World’s Fathers”. The report was produced by MenCare, a global campaign to promote men’s and boys’ involvement as equitable, non-violent caregivers. 50 minutes a day. That’s the amount of additional time men would need to contribute every day to caring for children and households to make a leap toward achieving gender equality in unpaid care. The report, the third of its kind, was released just in time for Father’s Day 2019.
New research across seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, the UK, and the US) finds that 85 per cent of fathers say that they would be willing to do anything to be very involved in the early weeks and months of caring for their newborn or adopted child. So, what’s holding them back?
The report identifies three major barriers: (1) the lack of adequate, paid paternity leave, and low take-up of leave when it is available; (2) restrictive gender norms that position care as women’s responsibility, alongside the perception of women as more competent caregivers than men; and (3) a lack of economic security and government support for all parents and caregivers.
The “State of the World’s Fathers” reveals that no country in the world has achieved equality in unpaid care work – or pay equality – between men and women. The progress is incredibly slow. Analysis of time use data finds that if men took on at least 50 minutes more care per day (and women did 50 minutes less), the scale would tip toward equality.
“We must accelerate national commitments to support all children, parents, and families to thrive, and to achieve men’s uptake of half of the daily care of children and of our homes. Full stop,” Promundo President & CEO Gary Barker said.
He noted, “Anything less continues to perpetuate the inequalities that women and girls face every day.”
At the conference, Unilever’s Dove Men+Care and Promundo also launched a global Paternity Leave Corporate Task Force – a member-led and owned alliance that aims to identify, promote, accelerate and bring to scale commercially and societally sustainable solutions that will result in improved access and uptake of paternity leave for all men. The global report calls for countries, employers, and civil society to commit to accelerate action and support men’s increased participation in unpaid care work.
The report was launched alongside the MenCare Commitment, aimed at facilitating an enabling environment where men take on 50 per cent of the unpaid care work by 2030. It also supports fathers to put their intentions to care into action by – at a minimum – taking on an additional 50 minutes a day.
The report also highlighted that research increasingly confirms that fathers’ involvement affects children in much the same ways that mothers’ involvement does. It added that fathers’ involvement has been linked to higher cognitive development and school achievement, better mental health for boys and girls, and lower rates of delinquency in sons. Studies in multiple countries have shown that fathers’ interaction is important for the development of empathy and social skills in sons and daughters.
Based on the research conducted, the report recommended that to achieve full gender equality and maximum well-being for children, countries must move beyond rigid, limiting definitions of fatherhood and motherhood and move toward what children need most to thrive. This is not merely a question of encouraging men to be nurturing and caring. This is an issue of social and economic justice.
It pointed out that changes are needed in policies, in systems and institutions, among service providers, within programming, and within data collection and analysis efforts.
The report provides specific recommendations for change at each of these levels. These include creating national and international action plans to promote involved, non-violent fatherhood, and men’s and boys’ equal sharing of unpaid care work.
Action plans on fatherhood and caregiving, it stated, should span multiple areas, including gender equality; children’s rights; health, education, and economic development; violence prevention and response and labour rights. Actions must be matched with clear indicators and budgets in order to measure progress and make visible the need for men and boys to do a fair share of the care work, it added.
The report recommends that world leaders/Governments institute and implement equal, paid, and non-transferrable parental leave policies in both Public and Private Sectors, as well as other policies that allow women’s equal participation in the labour force and men’s equal participation in unpaid care work.
Engaging men in caregiving, it noted, is about helping men to have the deep, meaningful connections to others that are at the root of well-being and happiness – but even more than that, it is about enabling men’s, women’s, and children’s full potential.
It is also about achieving full equality for women and girls. The “State of the World’s Fathers 2015” argues that it is time to shift both the perception and the reality of the role that men can play in nurturing, and to bring in the social measures and economic, social, and political support that are necessary to make this transformation possible. (Photos provided by State of the World’s Fathers report)
