![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.equimundo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Rwanda-Men-Cleaning-Social.jpg\")
\nPar Gary Barker
\n<\/strong>This blog was originally posted in\u00a0Nouvelle Am\u00e9rique<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
I hear it again and again: \u201cMen won\u2019t do que<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n That<\/em>, in this case, refers to housework: cooking, cleaning, wiping up, changing messy diapers and all que<\/em> stuff. These opinions aren\u2019t just expressed by a few men in passing\u2013they\u2019re felt at the highest levels. At the United Nations, and in governments around the world, when I suggest that men and boys need to do our share of the childcare and chores to achieve equality for women at work, I am frequently met with a look that says: Are you crazy? That will never happen.<\/em><\/p>\n These opinions have enormous implications\u200a\u2014\u200afor everyone. On Journ\u00e9e internationale de la femme<\/a>, as we\u2019re asked to pledge our support for women\u2019s leadership and equality at work, we cannot ignore what\u2019s happening at home. Though it may sound trivial to talk about who does the laundry, cleans the house or cares for children, it is arguably le<\/em> key factor that holds back women\u2019s advancement in work and politics.<\/p>\n Globally women spend about double the time<\/a> that men do on unpaid care work: 4.5 hours on average to men\u2019s 2 hours. This means that while women are caring for children, cleaning, and cooking, men and boys have more time for leisure and to advance their careers. This reality is so pervasive that a\u00a0recent advertisement<\/a> for laundry detergent, which dramatized a father\u2019s realization that his now-married daughter was living out the same inequalities he had modeled for her growing up, has gone viral with the hashtag #ShareTheLoad.<\/p>\n So the equation is changing, but far too slowly. In Brazil, for example, at this rate it will take 80 years<\/a> to achieve equality between men and women when it comes to care work.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why I believe men and boys can get to 50 percent of the care work: because around the world\u200a\u2014\u200aand under the radar\u200a\u2014\u200amany men and boys are already doing it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n First and foremost, the unequal burden of that women take on means that they continue to earn about 24 percent less<\/a> than men worldwide for the same work. This inequality in who cleans, cooks, takes care of children and the elderly keeps women and girls from the education they deserve. This isn\u2019t just an issue for individual men and women: estimates show that the global economy would grow as much as US$28 trillion<\/a> by 2025 if women participated in paid work at the same level as men do.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been called a traitor to my sex when I suggest that my fellow men have to do their part. Other times, I\u2019ve been called a blind optimist for believing that change is possible. Here\u2019s why I believe men and boys can get to 50 percent of the care work: because around the world\u200a\u2014\u200aand under the radar\u200a\u2014\u200amany men and boys are already doing it.<\/p>\n In Mozambique, for example, the organization Rede Homens Pela Mudan\u00e7a<\/a>\u00a0(Men for Change) is offering cooking classes for men\u200a\u2014\u200anot to become professional chefs, but to take on their share of the daily cooking. And the men are coming to class. In Bangladesh, the Brave Man Campaign<\/a> helps younger boys to support their mothers and sisters\u200a\u2014\u200aand to slowly start conversations with their fathers about why men and boys need to do their share. In Brazil, my organization Equimundo<\/a> offers continuing education<\/a> for teachers that helps them to address gender equality in the classroom, including on sharing the care. We\u2019ve also partnered with Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Health to develop online training for health workers on how to work with men on taking care of their children from the beginning. In Rwanda, along with our partners, we are offering parenting classes for men. In a part of the world where men are not expected to care or even touch newborns, offering hands-on classes on infant and child care are going a long way to change that norm.<\/p>\n These approaches are still far too small to tip the global scales, but they are a start. And change doesn\u2019t have to look the same everywhere to make a difference. In some contexts, for example, men start doing their share of care work because they have no choice: families just don\u2019t have the option to designate a breadwinner and a caregiver when they\u2019re struggling to get by. And in others, men are seeing the obvious need to take on more at home as women continue to take on more paid work.<\/p>\n There are tipping points when men start to see doing this work as normal: when we start to see other men in prenatal waiting rooms, in the delivery room, in daycare centers, and carrying their children in public spaces. When men see other men doing the care and domestic work they are more likely to do it too. In nearly 20,000 interviews Equimundo and partners have carried out around the world as part of the Enqu\u00eate internationale sur les hommes et l'\u00e9galit\u00e9 des sexes<\/a> (IMAGES), we consistently see\u200a\u2014\u200afrom India to Mexico to Croatia\u200a\u2014\u200athat men who saw their fathers or other men in the household do care work when they were children are more likely to do their share they have their own families.<\/p>\n So what can we do to make sure we\u2019re not having this conversation in 2096?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The challenge of course is how to speed it up the change\u200a\u2014\u200ahow to reach the tipping points sooner. Eighty years to achieve equality in Brazil, for example, is unacceptable. So what can we do to make sure we\u2019re not having this conversation in 2096?<\/p>\n Parental leave policies are a start. In countries where most of the workforce is in the formal workforce (collecting a paycheck), they are an effective driver of change, especially when they provide paid leave for both mothers and fathers. A new study of 22,000 companies in 91 countries finds that offering leave for fathers is positively linked<\/a> to women\u2019s corporate leadership (at the boardroom and at the executive level).<\/p>\n