Dean Peacock

The following provides a handy, one-page introduction to gender. It notes that gender is socially constructed, gender is both personal and collective, gender involves power and inequality, and there is diversity and hierarchy

Work with men has demonstrated significant potential in contributing to building gender equality and improving the health of women and men. However, most work with men has tended to be local in scale and limited in scope. To be more widely effective, that is to transform the pervasive gender inequalities which characterize many societies globally – efforts to transform men’s behaviour require to be significantly scaled up. Policy processes and mechanisms are key elements in any effort to engage men and boys in achieving gender equality.
This Policy Brief:

Engaging men and boys has emerged as a vital strategy for ending gender based violence, including in refugee and post-conflict settings. While prevention and response activities are essential, the humanitarian community and host country service providers understand that they must move beyond simply addressing each individual case of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and begin to address the societal, cultural, economic, religious and political systems that either perpetuate or allow for violence based on gender to continue.

Sonke Gender Justice Network and the MenEngage Alliance recently held a weeklong symposium in Johannesburg Oct 5-9th to profile research, programmes and policies related to efforts to engage men and boys in achieving gender equality and to promote greater dialogue and shared action between women's rights organizations and organizations working with men and boys for gender equality.

This literature review on men, gender and HIV and AIDS has been carried out in conjunction with a number of policy initiatives that Sonke Gender Justice Network has been involved in over the last 18 months. A growing body of evidence also suggests that men are far less likely than women to access HIV services including testing, treatment and other care and support services. Men’s under-utilisation of HIV services significantly undermines prevention and

Rather than focusing simply on ways to increase men’s participation in caring for those with HIV/AIDS, we look first at the causes of the enormous burden of informal care and identify ways to reduce it. We start by analysing the ways in which global economic policies and forces affect how AIDS care is provided and then discuss the relationship between these policies and the lack of health systems capacity available in most high HIV prevalence settings. We then focus on what currently prevents men and boys being more fully involved and identify strategies for increasing their involvement.