Brief on the global campaign to engage men as caregiving partners to promote better maternal health and sexual and reproductive health, reduce gender-based violence and promote child development and economic empowerment for women

Of all the topics discussed in engaging men in gender equality, the issue of men and caregiving, including men’s involvement in maternal health, remains conspicuously absent and underexplored. Indeed, one of the core and enduring aspects of gender inequality globally is the unequal work-life divide – the fact that men are generally expected to be providers and breadwinners (working mostly outside the home) and that women and girls are generallyexpected to provide care or be chiefly responsible for reproductive aspects of family life. Globally, women earn on average 22% less than men (World Bank, 2007). A recent multi-country study including lower, middle and higher income countries found that the mean time spent on unpaid care work by women ranges from two to 10 times that of men (Budlender, 2008). These realities persist even as women have begun working outside the home in larger and unprecedented numbers and as their roles have changed in households and in political life.