Transforming gender stereotypes: MenEngage Alliance’s call to action at the UN CEDAW Committee

“This weekend, I played a card game with my six-year-old son. You had to bring together a family of cartoon animals, consisting of a grandfather, a grandmother, a mother, a father, a little boy, and a little girl. The grandfathers and fathers were reading the newspaper, going to the office in a suit, and driving a car. The grandmothers and mothers were cooking, cleaning and knitting sweaters. The little boys were playing with cars, and the girls were playing with dolls. 

Our son knew exactly ‘which’ was supposedly ‘which.’ Our two-year-old daughter was paying careful attention as she tried to play along. “

Speaking on behalf of MenEngage Alliance, Joni was invited to address the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) during a half-day discussion on eliminating gender stereotypes. She used this personal story to illustrate how gender stereotypes shape the lives of children of all genders from an early age. Joni’s contribution called for recognising how gender stereotypes around masculinity impact women and girls as well as men and boys, and how these contribute to the persistence of harmful patriarchal norms. 

For boys, gender stereotypes lay the foundation for harmful and restrictive notions of manhood that normalize dominance, violence, and can become a root cause of inequality. In her CEDAW address, Joni expressed concern over the frightening consequences of internalizing these rigid ideas of masculinity:

“By the time he is 11, will my son have his first experience with violent, sexually explicit content online and think that this is how a man should behave? When he is 16, will he access the online manosphere and think that the likes of Andrew Tate are great influencers? Will he think gender equality has gone too far, like an increasing number of young men around the world? How will men and boys be expected to act in the world where our children will grow up and live in?“

As these real-life examples intend to show, we cannot discuss gender issues by only looking at stereotypes for women and their experiences. MenEngage Alliance delivered an urgent call to action to also look at gender stereotypes related to manhood, because such gender stereotypes for men are a root cause of gender-based violence, discrimination and inequalities.

Calling for policy to address patriarchal masculinities

Speaking on behalf of MenEngage Alliance, Joni emphasized that transforming gender stereotypes about men is a crucial yet often overlooked strategy to end gender-based violence and discrimination and to advance equality, and therefore must be an integral part of gender justice efforts. 

In front of the CEDAW Committee, dozens of government representatives and a handful of civil society organizations and researchers, Joni advocated for the explicit recognition and inclusion of patriarchal masculinities in global gender policy frameworks, with a clear intention:  

“To be clear, we are not calling for attention to men’s stereotypes simply for the sake of focusing on men and boys. Rather, we firmly believe that without transforming patriarchal masculinities, we cannot eliminate gender stereotypes for women, girls, gender-nonconforming individuals, or for men and boys themselves.”

Patriarchal masculinities are ideas and practices that reinforce a hierarchy of masculinity over femininity, and certain types of masculinity over others. These masculinities manifest individually (through attitudes and behaviors), institutionally (in policies and laws), and ideologically (through social and cultural norms), perpetuating power imbalances between men and women and within society as a whole.

Joni’s intervention came at a pivotal moment in the CEDAW Committee’s process of developing General Recommendation No. 41 (GR41). This forthcoming recommendation aims to interpret the scope and obligations of States parties under Article 5 of the CEDAW Convention, which calls on governments to modify social and cultural patterns that reinforce gender-based discrimination, focusing on the elimination of prejudices and practices based on stereotyped roles for men and women. 

The half-day discussion where Joni spoke was the first stage in the process of developing this policy recommendation, shaping how GR41 will guide governments in eliminating gender stereotypes. Joni emphasized that this process must explicitly address how harmful masculinity norms contribute to gender inequality – both by reinforcing violence and discrimination against women and girls, and by restricting men and boys within rigid gender roles.

By ensuring GR41 includes masculinities, policymakers can take a more comprehensive and effective approach to tackling the root causes of gender-based violence, discrimination, and systemic inequalities. 

Supporting systemic change through policy 

Dismantling gender discrimination and inequality requires more than changing individual attitudes, it also demands transforming the systems that uphold these injustices. This means challenging harmful institutional practices, reshaping policies, and dismantling patriarchal cultural narratives. Through systemic change can we create a world where everyone, regardless of gender, is free from restrictive stereotypes and oppression.

In her address at this high-level political forum, Joni brought to the Committee’s attention the urgent need to transform current gender stereotypes of manhood, emphasising that men and boys must be actively engaged in this transformation, alongside women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people. In her words: 

“The gender box is limiting for everyone. But there is a difference: the box created for women harms women, while the box created for men harms everyone”