Every day for the past 10,000 years has been International Men’s Day. That doesn’t mean that men don’t face real issues, have real problems, or real pain. It simply means that everything about our society has been and in many cases still is largely androcentric. The majority of children’s books feature male characters; the majority of lines in movies (even ones that are about women) feature primarily male voices. History books are filled with the exploits of men, quite often leaving out women with more interesting stories. For example, Sybil Luddington, who outrode Paul Revere and reached many more people.
Here is a quote from this year’s announcement from the UN committee, “Achieving a gender-equal world requires social innovations that work for both women and men and leave no one behind. From urban planning that focuses on community safety to e-learning platforms that take classrooms to women and girls, affordable and quality childcare centres, and technology shaped by women, innovation can take the race for gender equality to its finishing line by 2030.”
