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title="Posts by Carl Haub">Carl Haub</a> (6)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=11" title="Posts by Charlie Teller">Charlie Teller</a> (7)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=19" title="Posts by Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs">Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs</a> (2)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=14" title="Posts by Deborah Mesce">Deborah Mesce</a> (1)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=10" title="Posts by Eric Zuehlke">Eric Zuehlke</a> (5)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=20" title="Posts by Farzaneh Roudi">Farzaneh Roudi</a> (2)</li><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=13" title="Posts by Jason Bremner">Jason Bremner</a> (8)</li><li><a 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href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?author=15" title="Posts by Victoria Ebin">Victoria Ebin</a> (2)</li></ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li id="categories-1" class="widget widget_categories"><h2 class="widgettitle">Topics</h2> <ul> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=1" title="blog on the PRB topic: Aging">Aging</a> (3) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-3"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=3" title="Blog on the PRB topic- Education">Education</a> (2) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-4"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=4" title="Blog on the PRB topic of Environment">Environment</a> (13) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-5 current-cat"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="Blog on the PRB topic of Gender">Gender</a> (7) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-6"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=6" title="Blog on the PRB topic of HIV/AIDS">HIV/AIDS</a> (1) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-7"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=7" title="Blog on the PRB Topic of Immigration/Migration">Immigration/Migration</a> (4) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-8"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=8" title="Blog on the topic of Income/Poverty">Income/Poverty</a> (10) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-9"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=9" title="Blog on the topic of Marriage Family">Marriage/Family</a> (1) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-10"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=10" title="Blog about the topic of Population basics">Population Basics</a> (18) </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-31"><a 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10.863636363636pt;">food</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=gender-based-violence" class="tag-link-75" title="2 topics" style="font-size: 10.863636363636pt;">gender-based violence</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=health" class="tag-link-73" title="2 topics" style="font-size: 10.863636363636pt;">health</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=hivaids" class="tag-link-6" title="1 topic" style="font-size: 8pt;">HIV/AIDS</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=india" class="tag-link-58" title="2 topics" style="font-size: 10.863636363636pt;">India</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=iran" class="tag-link-65" title="1 topic" style="font-size: 8pt;">Iran</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?tag=journalism" class="tag-link-42" title="2 topics" 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Ebrahim, freelance journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan, and member PRB’s Women’s Edition</em> </p> <p>They didn’t talk about maternal mortality and they didn’t talk about how it pays to invest in women. They didn’t talk about cost-effective solutions or that pumping another $12 billion a year can deliver for girls and women. No grim figures and no statistics were discussed.</p> <p>So what were these women doing at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.womendeliver.org/" target="_blank">Women Deliver</a>, the largest-ever maternal and child health conference, held in Washington D.C. this week if they were not advocating for investing in women’s health and education, the theme of the conference? It was the second plenary of the first day of Women Deliver 2010, and these women in power talked about how they learned to cope with their successes.</p> <p>These champions of women’s rights, who have worked tirelessly for women’s health issues, included Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile; Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Ashley Judd, actress and board member of the Population Services International; and Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama.</p> <p>The four women spoke unabashedly about their fears, mostly about the fear of not meeting people’s expectations; the hard task of upholding the “superwoman” title that they never asked for in the first place, and how they dealt with criticism. They talked about their endless quest to find a balance, the juggling of responsibilities for those who had kids, and how those who chose not to have kids had to fight for that right. They talked about the importance of having alliances, of “trusting” friends who would tell them the truth for often when you are at the helm you “lose sense of reality.” Their discussion became all the more real because it was interspersed with real-life anecdotes. </p> <p>The room was cold and would have grown unbearably colder had it not been for the warmth exuded by the moderator, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.huffingtonpost.org/" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a>, who put her guests at ease — so much so that Judd took off her shoes and plunked herself comfortably in the chair and pulled her legs up. </p> <p>Huffington opened the discussion with what she claimed was a “trivial” subject — sleep – of which she had lately become “obsessed.” She said she needed seven and a half hours of sleep to be able to get her creative juices running smoothly. But more importantly, she pointed out that for many women, success meant driving themselves to the ground. “It’s not enough to be successful if there was no joy,” she said.</p> <p>Bachelet, who was 22nd on Forbes 2009 list of 100 most powerful women, said women in power positions could make a difference. “I went into politics to be able to make people happy,” she said simply. Yet, she said it was not easy and she spent sleepless nights and anxious days because people were looking up to her, many for inspiration, others with aspiration. </p> <p>The key to surviving at the helm, said Jarret, was to “make room for yourself.” To which Clark added, “believe in yourself,” which was seconded by Bachelet who said “don’t be consumed by work.” But another piece of advice came out during the plenary: abstain from holding grudges. Each speaker said most women were so scared of criticism, they internalized it. “The trick is to get over it,” they said.</p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=127&title=PRB Women’s Edition at the Women Deliver Conference: The Changemakers" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-92"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=92" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to When Will Women No Longer Need Activism Against Gender-Based Violence?">When Will Women No Longer Need Activism Against Gender-Based Violence?</a></h2> <p><small>January 19th, 2010 Karin Ringheim</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=92#respond" title="Comment on When Will Women No Longer Need Activism Against Gender-Based Violence?">No Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><em>by Karin Ringheim, senior policy adviser, International Programs</em></p> <p>“16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence” began on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25th) and ended on International Human Rights Day (December 10th). The theme of this year’s campaign, “Commit, Act, Demand: We Can End Violence Against Women,” was well-addressed in an event that PRB and PATH, co-chairs of the Gender-based Violence Task Force of the Interagency Gender Working Group, organized on December 3rd. “Working with Men to Stop Violence,” featured several of the most prominent leaders in the field: Gary Barker, Director of Gender, Violence and Rights at the International Center for Research on Women; Pat McGann, Vice President for Communications for Men Can Stop Rape; Todd Minerson, Executive Director of the White Ribbon Campaign and Dean Peacock, Co-Director of Sonke Gender Justice, based in South Africa. Each of these organizations works internationally on issues related to men and violence. Gary and Dean also co-chair the <a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.menengage.org/">MenEngage Alliance</a>, an international network of more than 400 groups promoting the positive engagement of men in reproductive health. Gary’s presentation and others from this symposium are available on the<a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.igwg.org/Events/SymposiumWorkingWithMen.aspx"> IGWG website</a>.</p> <p align="center"><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://lh5.ggpht.com/_h1pkeIeuNeU/S1BiILo8-2I/AAAAAAAAANs/IhzTIIpcaBw/s720/DSC00629.JPG" height="300" width="400"/></p> <p align="center"><em>Gary Barker, Director of Gender, Violence, and Rights at the International Center for Research on Women, speaks at the PRB and PATH-organized event, “Working with Men to Stop Violence.”</em></p> <p align="center"><em>Photo credit: Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs, PRB.</em></p> <p>Why all the attention to violence against women? WHO’s 2005 <a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/">Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women </a>provided the first cross-cultural documentation that gender-based violence is pervasive and pernicious, affecting women in every social and economic strata and during every stage of their lives. The evidence that between 15 percent and 71 percent of women in 10 countries have ever experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner has enabled a greater focus on gender-based violence and interventions to prevent it.</p> <p>With gender-based violence more prominent on the development agenda than ever before, Gary Barker asked, “How do we take advantage of the interest in violence prevention?” Barker noted that early results from the new the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), which is documenting the extent of violence against women in at least nine countries, support the need for a “relational approach” to gender and gender-based violence, to counteract the expectations that men and women share and reinforce for one another, that men must be dominant and aggressive and that women must be submissive.</p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=92#more-92" class="more-link">Read the rest of this entry »</a></p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=92&title=When Will Women No Longer Need Activism Against Gender-Based Violence?" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-91"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=91" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to No Woman Left Behind">No Woman Left Behind</a></h2> <p><small>January 12th, 2010 Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=12" title="View all posts in Reproductive Health" rel="category">Reproductive Health</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=91#respond" title="Comment on No Woman Left Behind">No Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><em>by Charlotte Feldman-Jacobs, program director, Gender</em> </p> <p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s<a target="_blank" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135001.htm"> speech on Friday, Jan. 8</a> commemorated the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo but could reasonably be called the “No Woman Left Behind” speech.</p> <p>The Secretary extolled the Cairo Conference as a milestone in proclaiming that “women’s health is essential to the prosperity and opportunity of all, to the stability of families and communities, and the sustainability and development of nations.” She reminded us that the 1994 Conference set specific targets to be met by 2015—to provide evidence of improvement in women’s health care; reductions in infant, child, and maternal mortality; of education for all, but especially for girls and women. These improvements will lead to sustainable development and economic growth — all the while contributing to gender equality, equity, and the empowerment of women. It’s a short time frame with a tall order, especially given the lack of progress in reducing maternal mortality in the last 15 years.</p> <p>Secretary Clinton listed some of the great achievements that have been made towards these 2015 targets in the increased use of contraceptives, in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS from mother to child, in improving neonatal and child health, in the number of girls in school, and in the widespread realization that gender needs to be mainstreamed into the entire range of global programs.</p> <p>However, she rightly pointed out, “vast inequities remain:” Women and girls are the majority of the world’s poor – too many unschooled, unhealthy, underfed, and bearing the brunt of gender-based domestic abuse as well as brutally violent national and regional conflicts.</p> <p>The statistics Clinton threw down to illustrate that woman are the downtrodden of the earth are very familiar to many of us: one woman dies every minute of every day in pregnancy or childbirth, and “for every woman who dies, another 20 suffer from injury, infection, or disease every minute;” 215 million women lack access to modern contraceptives to prevent unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, a contributing factor in “the nearly 20 million unsafe abortions that take place very year.” And she noted that millions of women and girls suffer the pain and indignity of such crippling conditions as obstetric fistula and of sexually transmitted infections which they have neither the power nor the information to prevent. Calling specific attention to Female Genital Mutilation (by its “gentler” term Female Genital Cutting), Clinton noted the resulting serious infections and injuries during child birth, but she might have added that it also robs women of their sexual pleasure and indeed has been outlawed in many countries where it occurs. But, Madame Secretary, far more than 70 million girls and women have been subjected to this cruel tradition. The latest figures show that 100-140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM/C and more than 3 million girls are at risk for cutting each year on the African continent alone.</p> <p>Moving from the problems to the solutions, Secretary Clinton emphasized “Investing in the health of women, adolescents, and girls is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do.” She said the Administration’s commitment and actions will be guided by Cairo’s excellent “roadmap” through:</p> <ul> <li>New funding to achieve Millennium Development Goal Five (improving maternal health and achieving universal access to contraception)</li> <li>The re-funding of UNFPA</li> <li>Working with the Congress to appropriate nearly $650 million to family planning and reproductive health programs worldwide</li> <li>The Global Health Initiative (GHI), the crown jewel in this administration’s “women-centered approach.”</li> </ul> <p>While the exact strategy of the GHI has not been revealed, $63 billion will be committed over the next six years to prevent millions of new HIV infections; reduce maternal and child mortality; avert millions of unintended pregnancies; eliminate some neglected tropical diseases, and integrate women and girls into all health programs.</p> <p>If this blogger were to change just one thing about this important speech, it would be to elevate the one sentence that came near the end about the importance of engaging men and boys in the societal changes that will need to take place to achieve better health and equity for women and the world. “Men are presented as the abusers and HIV vectors,” the Secretary said, adding that we need to reach out to men and boys to encourage them to be active partners in working toward better reproductive health and equality. This important point deserves to have been made more than once; lack of progress over the last decade in achieving gender equity shows it needs to be raised early and often if our work is to be successful.</p> <p>Nevertheless, even though I was watching the speech on a TV monitor, I wanted to stand up and cheer her statements that:</p> <ul> <li>It is a national security issue to pay attention to women and girls.</li> <li>It is a matter of equity and fairness.</li> <li>It is not just the elite women in societies but also “ the women who live down the street or care for their children or clean their homes or plant their crops” that need our attention.” Rights must be protected for women everywhere.</li> </ul> <p>Secretary Clinton exhorted the leaders in the august Ben Franklin Room of the State Department (and maybe even those watching on the ICPD2015 simulcast), “Do Not Grow Weary.” She might have borrowed a line from Robert Frost: For we have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.”?</p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=91&title=No Woman Left Behind" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-88"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=88" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Ending Violence Against Women Must Begin in Boyhood">Ending Violence Against Women Must Begin in Boyhood</a></h2> <p><small>December 16th, 2009 Karin Ringheim</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=88#comments" title="Comment on Ending Violence Against Women Must Begin in Boyhood">5 Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><em>by Karin Ringheim, senior policy advisor, International Programs</em></p> <p>One has only to read a single issue of <em>The Washington Post</em> to be painfully reminded of the tremendous toll that violence against women takes, both in the U.S. and across the globe. On a single day, the <em>Post’s</em> Metro section referenced the violent deaths of seven women in the DC metro area:</p> <ul> <li>“Doctor gets 30 years for killing wife”</li> <li>“Kensington man [who] killed his wife’s elderly aunt with a 40 lb dumbbell” sentenced</li> <li>“Man convicted of killing his teenaged girlfriend over $2 three weeks after she had given birth to his child.”</li> <li>“Man who strangled his girlfriend and hid her body…. sentenced.”</li> <li>“Virginia woman [who] predicted her death had dropped the restraining order against her husband the day before she was found dead.”</li> <li>“Investigators in Rockville stabbing look at relationship with husband”</li> <li>“Man convicted of killing wife in Montgomery.”</li> </ul> <p>The front section of the same paper referenced both national and international violence against women:</p> <ul> <li>A Colorado man convicted of “kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 25 year old woman” gets a new sentence hearing</li> <li>In Chicago, “the boyfriend…was charged with murder after he admitted beating her the night she died”</li> <li>According to the General Accounting Office, sexual abuse of women and girls “is pervasive and present in almost all refugee settings” in which millions of women and children live</li> <li>In Afghanistan, “hundreds of human rights organizations report that women and girls who dare to walk the streets alone are subject to harassment and violence.”</li> </ul> <p>This issue of the<em> Post</em> was not atypical. Globally, violence accounts for 7 percent of deaths among women ages 15 to 44, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that nearly half of all women who die by homicide are killed by a current or former spouse or boyfriend. But deaths from homicide do not begin to reflect the contribution that violence makes to women’s death from other causes, including suicide, maternal deaths, and HIV/AIDS. Nor does it convey the tremendous emotional and physical toll on women of experiencing physical, sexual and emotional violence throughout their lives, including during pregnancy.</p> <p>Violence against women is generally more prevalent in societies in which women have little power and where rigid gender norms condone controlling behavior among men and submissive behavior among women, but the United States does not stand up well in comparison to most of the developed world or even to some developing countries. In the United States, eight times as many women are victims of homicide each year as is true in Great Britain.</p> <p>A new survey underway or completed in a number of countries, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), is shedding light on men’s attitudes and behaviors on a wide range of issues, including gender-based violence. Initial findings from IMAGES show that among the factors associated with men’s perpetration of violence against women are a childhood experience of violence, men’s belief in inequitable gender norms, and men’s economic disempowerment, stress or shame due to underemployment or unemployment.</p> <p>The first two factors are actionable by parents, to assure that children of either sex do not experience or witness verbal or physical abuse in their own homes, and that daughters are raised on an equal footing with sons. Teachers, coaches and communities can implement gender equitable practices and zero tolerance for disrespectful treatment of girls. The third factor, men’s economic disempowerment, requires structural change, whether in developing countries or here in the United States. While perpetration of violence crosses all boundaries of race, income and social class, black men are clearly at greater risk based on economic disempowerment. Official unemployment among black men age 20 and above in the U.S. is nearly 17 percent and more black men are in prison here than are in college. Early investment in helping boys succeed in school and emerge with marketable job skills is a big part of the investment needed to reduce future violence against women. </p> <p>On December 3, as part of the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, PRB and PATH sponsored an event at the National Press Club. An upcoming blog post will focus on strategies offered by the four presenters, champions of work with men to stop violence against women in the United States and globally. </p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=88&title=Ending Violence Against Women Must Begin in Boyhood" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-51"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=51" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Transforming Traditional Male Norms: A “Gateway” to Democracy">Transforming Traditional Male Norms: A “Gateway” to Democracy</a></h2> <p><small>April 9th, 2009 Karin Ringheim</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=31" title="View all posts in PRB News" rel="category">PRB News</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=51#comments" title="Comment on Transforming Traditional Male Norms: A “Gateway” to Democracy">3 Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><em>by Karin Ringheim, senior policy analyst</em></p> <p>If “gender” is the social construction of what it means to be male or female, and “gender equity” connotes fairness and justice in the distribution of opportunities, responsibilities, and benefits available to men and women, “gender inequity” refers to an imbalance in that distribution. This imbalance is typically thought of as benefitting men, although the true “benefits” of traditional masculine norms which condone risk-taking, substance abuse, and aggression, are certainly cast in doubt by the documented consequences of these norms for men themselves. Globally, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.dcp2.org/pubs/GBD">boys and men ages 15 and above are at least twice as likely as girls and women to die </a>of injuries, both unintentional (traffic accidents, falls, drowning, etc.) and intentional (suicide, violence, war). </p> <p>PRB recently co-sponsored an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.igwg.org/">InterAgency Gender Working Group </a>meeting on male norms and behavior change organized by the USAID-funded C-Change project, implemented by AED and partners. The purpose of the meeting, to gain the input of experts in reproductive health from three continents for a men’s involvement component of the project, also provided an opportunity to examine the progress made in the constructive involvement of men in reproductive health. Gary Barker, who recently joined the International Center for Research on Women, was one of these experts. WHO’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.who.int/gender/documents/Engaging_men_boys.pdf">2007 meta-analysis </a>of men’s programs around the world by Barker and others formed the background for this meeting. The analysis provides evidence that programs are most effective when they aim for “gender transformation” – going beyond accommodating male and female differences to engage men in reflecting upon and challenging the gender norms that maintain men’s power and privilege over women. </p> <p>A few days earlier, on International Women’s Day, Barker was interviewed on the Al Jazeera television program, People and Power, about the role of men in women’s empowerment. Men, he said, “have a common stake in overcoming male dominance that wreaks havoc in men’s lives and certainly in women’s lives.” British feminist Linda Bellos agreed with Barker on the need to involve men for the benefit of women, and for men themselves. “Men need to reclaim the wholeness of a human being…I want our children not to be bound solely by the notion of gender.” </p> <p><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/1rHrqk6GbgI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244oe_/http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/1rHrqk6GbgI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></p> <p>What does it mean to be “bound by the notion of gender”?</p> <p>A recently <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/qcq/QCQ19.pdf">published case study </a>from Turkey makes the point well. As in many countries, “expectations about manhood and fatherhood are reinforced from one generation to the next. Across social classes, fathers’ roles are defined narrowly as breadwinners and disciplinarians. Children grow up, respecting and loving their fathers, but longing for affection, attention, and understanding. Fathers too wish for a closer and more caring relationship with their children. However, few men… have a sense of another way to be or have the skills to overcome their inadequate socialization in relating to their children.” </p> <p>Gary Barker refers to men’s roles as fathers as the “low-hanging fruit” in promoting gender equity: men want to be more loving in their relationship with their children, and they embrace opportunities to learn how to be better fathers. In Turkey, the Mother Child Education Foundation launched a Father Support Program. This consciousness-raising and skill-building program helps fathers recognize and improve upon the important role they play in the emotional lives of their children. The program incorporates a critical element of the gender transformative process: reflection. Recalling their relationships with their fathers, men discuss how they would like to be remembered by their children. They also learn about the importance of play to a child’s development and the value of encouragement. Ultimately, researchers have found that challenging men’s gender-bound notions about fatherhood can open the door to exploring other aspects of traditional masculinity. Nurturing fatherhood has led to generational change, enabling sons to be less gender-bound and more equitable in their relationships with their partners and children. Slowly, the authors say, these programs are building democracy at the household level, promoting mutual respect, human rights, and nonviolent conflict resolution, one father and one family at a time.</p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=51&title=Transforming Traditional Male Norms: A “Gateway” to Democracy" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-28"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=28" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Women Journalists Unite for Reproductive Health">Women Journalists Unite for Reproductive Health</a></h2> <p><small>December 11th, 2008 Deborah Mesce</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=12" title="View all posts in Reproductive Health" rel="category">Reproductive Health</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=28#respond" title="Comment on Women Journalists Unite for Reproductive Health">No Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><em>by Deborah Mesce, program director, International Media Training</em> </p> <p>Twelve women journalists from around the developing world came to Washington, DC last month to join PRB’s global media network called <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/About/InternationalPrograms/Projects-Programs/InternationalMedia/WomensEdition.aspx">Women’s Edition </a>and participate in their first seminar. They traveled from Africa, South Asia, Eurasia, the Middle East, and Central America. I always look forward to these Women’s Edition gatherings, but especially the first one for a new group. That’s when I can finally put faces to names and CVs, and it’s when the dynamics of the group become clear: Will they be talkative or reticent? Will they get along? Will they have interesting stories to share? Will they find the seminar informative? The content of the seminars can be as important as the quality and enthusiasm of the journalists, and this new group didn’t disappoint. They were lively, interesting, and curious, and they didn’t hesitate to ask questions or to offer their opinions.</p> <p align="center"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/we7.jpg" title="we7.jpg"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://prbblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/we7.jpg" alt="we7.jpg"/><img border="0" align="middle" width="1" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://prbblog.org/wp-admin/" alt="we7.jpg" height="1"/></a><img border="0" align="middle" width="1" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://prbblog.org/wp-admin/" alt="we7.jpg" height="1"/><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/we7.jpg" title="we7.jpg"></a></p> <p align="center"><em>Deborah Mesce (standing), greets journalists on the first day of the Women’s Edition seminar.</em> Photo credit: ©Eric Zuehlke/PRB</p> <p>For those who don’t know about Women’s Edition, it’s a unique project that USAID has funded for 10 years aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of news covering reproductive health issues. The new group brings the total of journalists who have participated in the network to nearly 60. Every two years, PRB sifts through scores of applications and selects 10 to 12 women with senior-level positions at influential news organizations in developing countries. They attend four seminars, about six months apart, on different aspects of reproductive health; when they return home, they produce for their news organizations stories about the seminar topic in the context of their own countries.</p> <p>We hold a group’s first seminar in Washington, DC and focus on the basics of family planning and maternal health, but the other seminars can be anywhere else, consistent with the theme of the seminar and, of course, financial resources. For example, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/johannesburg.aspx">last May we took the previous Women’s Edition group to <st1:city w:st="on">Johannesburg</st1:city> </a>for a seminar on sexual violence, and before that we took them to a very poor area of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/LessonsLearnedCommunity-BasedProject.aspx">examine a project where village health workers have reduced infant and maternal deaths </a>to Western levels. The second seminar for the current group will be in April or May 2009, and over the next month or so PRB and the journalists will decide upon the topics to be covered and where it will be held. In the meantime, we’ll all stay in touch through a list serve as the journalists work on their articles and radio programs. And if this group is anything like previous ones, the journalists will continue to bond, personally and professionally, and they’ll become more confident in their work. Some will get promoted. Most will become their newsroom’s de facto health expert. Some of the journalists will be called by ministry officials or members of parliament who hear, see or read their stories and want to know what they can do.</p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=28&title=Women Journalists Unite for Reproductive Health" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div id="post-16"> <h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=16" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Four Steps to Fewer Poor People">Four Steps to Fewer Poor People</a></h2> <p><small>October 15th, 2008 Bill Butz</small> Posted in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=3" title="View all posts in Education" rel="category">Education</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=5" title="View all posts in Gender" rel="category">Gender</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=8" title="View all posts in Income/Poverty" rel="category">Income/Poverty</a>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?cat=13" title="View all posts in Youth" rel="category">Youth</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://prbblog.org/?p=16#respond" title="Comment on Four Steps to Fewer Poor People">No Comments »</a> </p> <div class="entry"> <p><i>by Bill Butz, President and CEO, Population Reference Bureau</i>  </p> <p>I’ve led a relatively privileged life, never economically poor or deprived of basic needs. But I’ve been around data and research on poverty throughout my career. At RAND, I surveyed and studied how poverty, fertility, health, and economic opportunities interact in Guatemala and Malaysia. At the Census Bureau, much of the official U.S. statistics on poverty, income, education, and health were my responsibility. At the National Science Foundation, we funded much academic research on poverty in the U.S and elsewhere. And now at PRB, we turn relevant data and research about poverty and other topics into clear and evidence-based information for decision makers. So, based on a life’s experience and on the scientific evidence—if I were Lead Adviser, what would I do to substantially reduce poverty? Here’s how I’ll spend the first billion dollars:</p> <ul> <li>I will spend $300 million to build schools, develop relevant curricula, train teachers, and ensure effective primary schooling—all to eliminate functional illiteracy in poor countries. In spite of real progress over the last 30 years, about a billion people, most of them female, entered this century unable to write their names or read a book. Most won’t, for this reason, use new farming techniques or work in a modern factory. They’re stuck. Based on recent progress, we know how to increase literacy through schooling.</li> <li>I will spend $300 million to increase the availability of effective and affordable contraceptives to women and men who want to reduce or space their births. More children than desired causes poverty. Based on the evidence, we know how to create a more enabling environment to lower birth rates. See PRB’s policy brief, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/ensuringfamilyplanning.aspx" mce_href="http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/ensuringfamilyplanning.aspx"><font color="#3366ff">Ensuring a Wide Range of Family Planning Choices</font></a> for more information.</li> <li>I will spend $200 mllion to teach disadvantaged U.S. children age 4-6 cognitive skills along with noncognitive skills like motivation and perseverance, all of which are necessary for success in school and jobs. If necessary, I will pay for this by shifting resources from formal schooling and remedial job training, neither of which works without the basic skills. We don’t know exactly how to impart these skills in ways consistent with parental roles, so the first dollars will go into research and controlled field trials. See James J. Heckman’s article “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.brainwave.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/valuing_prevention.pdf" target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.brainwave.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/valuing_prevention.pdf"><font color="#3366ff">Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children</font></a>.”</li> <li>I will spend $200 million to eliminate child undernourishment in the world. A third of all child deaths globally, three and a half million each year, is due to nutrition-related causes. Many of those who survive have less energy and health for school and work. This exacerbates poverty. We know how to eliminate undernutrition (overnutrition—obesity—is tougher) and doing so isn’t expensive as these things go. See James Levinson and Lucy Bassett’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/pdf07/Nutrition2007.pdf" mce_href="http://www.prb.org/pdf07/Nutrition2007.pdf"><font color="#3366ff">PRB brief on malnutrition</font></a><font color="#3366ff">,<font color="#3366ff"> </font><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.globalnutritionseries.org/" target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.globalnutritionseries.org/"><font color="#3366ff">The Lancet’s Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition</font></a>, <font color="#000000">and</font> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/childnutrition.aspx" mce_href="http://www.prb.org/Articles/2008/childnutrition.aspx"><font color="#3366ff">PRB’s seminar on improving child nutrition</font></a> <font color="#000000">for more.</font> <o:p></o:p></font><o:p><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></li> </ul> <p>The list of challenges goes on: bad governance, industrialized country agricultural policies, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases, food maldistribution, lack of employment opportunities and more. Indeed, my top priorities will not succeed in some places without complementary investments. Still, to lead is to choose. You see how this “adviser” would choose. If you were Lead Adviser instead, what would you choose to do?</p> <p>(If you really like the priorities game, see <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://copenhagenconsensus.com/" target="_blank" mce_href="http://copenhagenconsensus.com/"><font color="#3366ff">Copenhagenconsensus.com </font></a>and the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2008/MDG_Report_2008_En.pdf" target="_blank" mce_href="http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2008/MDG_Report_2008_En.pdf"><font color="#3366ff">UN Millennium Development Goals 2008 Report</font></a>)<script src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244js_/http://blogactionday.org/js/aa642195f04b82394cc7db686409c97b99dee7d6" mce_src="http://blogactionday.org/js/aa642195f04b82394cc7db686409c97b99dee7d6"></script><br/> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://blogactionday.org/" mce_href="http://blogactionday.org"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://blogactionday.s3.amazonaws.com/banners/88x31.jpg" mce_src="http://blogactionday.s3.amazonaws.com/banners/88x31.jpg"></a></p> </div>  <div class="addthis"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=blogohblog&url=http://prbblog.org/?p=16&title=Four Steps to Fewer Poor People" title="Bookmark using any bookmark manager!" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://s9.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button"/></a></div> </div> <div class="br"><br/></div> <div> <div class="alignleft"></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> <br/> </div> </td></tr></table></center>  <br/><br/> <div align="center"> <div align="center" id="ftr"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://www.prb.org/images/footer2.gif" width="3" height="23" align="right"/><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244im_/http://www.prb.org/images/footer1.gif" width="3" height="23" align="left"/><span class="footertext">Services: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Home/EmailSignup.aspx">Get E-Mail News</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Join.aspx">Join/Renew Membership</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Donate.aspx">Donate</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Bookstore.aspx">Bookstore</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Home/Contact.aspx">Contact</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/SpanishContent.aspx">Español</a>  ·  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/FrenchContent.aspx">Français</a></span></div> <span class="footer2text"><b>Copyright 2007, Population Reference Bureau.</b> All rights reserved. • <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/http://www.prb.org/Home/Privacy.aspx">Privacy Policy</a></span><br/> <span class="footer2text">1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW • Suite 520 • Washington, DC 20009-5728 • USA <br/> <b>Phone:</b> 800-877-9881 • <b>Fax:</b> 202-328-3937 • <b>E-mail:</b> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100612100244/mailto:popref@prb.org">popref@prb.org</a></span><br/> </div>  </div>  <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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