Equal partners: Engaging men and boys for gender equality
December, 21, 2020
Sri Lanka ranks 90 out of 189 in the Gender Inequality Index (2019). Over the years, significant strides have been made to create equal opportunities for women, particularly in terms of free and equal access to education and healthcare. However, in the face of structural barriers and harmful societal norms that perpetuate gender stereotypes - while gender inequalities can affect anyone - evidence points to women facing the most discrimination particularly in their own homes and social spheres.
The Gender Social Norms Index (2020), produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has found pervasive bias—by both men and women—against women worldwide. According to the analysis, 30% of women and men interviewed across 75 countries agree that it is justifiable for a man to beat his partner. A study titled ‘Broadening Gender: Why Masculinities Matter’ (2013) highlighted that 20% of men in Sri Lanka indicated that they had committed some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime and 66% felt that this was due to a sense of “entitlement”. Similarly, the recently published Women’s Wellbeing Survey (2019) found that 35.3% of women in Sri Lanka agreed that men can have a good reason to hit their wives. The ongoing pandemic itself has disproportionally affected women with an increase in unpaid domestic work and care burdens, economic disempowerment and an exponential increase in sexual and gender-based violence.