- Boys and men are the primary perpetrators of violence against women.
- Gender-based violence is a community problem, not a women’s problem, and change requires a holistic community investment - including both men and women
- It can reinforce the work being done with girls and women to address gender-based violence
- Men still hold the majority of decision making positions in government, business and family environments, making their leadership in eradicating violence central
- Leaving men and boys out of efforts to end violence separates them from the solutions to violence, reaffirms gender norms around male violence and leaves the burden of addressing violence squarely on women's shoulders 62
- Most men in the world don’t commit violence, but don’t do anything to stop it. We must enlist these silent allies in creating positive peer influence and create an understanding that if we aren’t part of the solution, we are part of the problem
- Men and boys are also brothers, fathers, sons, uncles who have a vested interest in the well being of the females in their communities
- Men experience violence and suffer from the rigidity of gender roles as well as woman
Footnotes:
62 . World Health Organisation (n.d.). Why engage men in the fight to end violence against women and girls? Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/gender/topics/why_engage_men/en/index.html