Blog: It’s not (just) a women’s thing - Hoofdinhoud

I have joined the ‘He For She’ campaign

I would like to tell you about a new commitment I have recently taken. I have joined the ‘He For She’ campaign, a solidarity movement aiming to make gender equality an issue for both men and women. Indeed, men and boys have a pivotal role to play in changing the social norms that affect women and girls.

The initiative is led by UN Women, whose Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, I had the pleasure to meet very recently.

The fact that, in our day and age, seven in 10 women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime; or that 2 million women are trafficked each year into prostitution, forced labour, slavery or servitude; is not only unacceptable from a moral and legal point of view, but is also putting a break on global development and progress. In order to reverse this trend, we need to actively involve men and boys in a movement that has historically been conceived as “a struggle for women by women”.

The EU has been, and will continue to be, a strong defender of women’s rights and supporter of women's empowerment, and has made huge efforts to ensure that women and girls are at the heart of all its development projects. Thanks to this approach, for instance, it has managed to get 300,000 girls into secondary education, and have over seven million births attended by medical staff.

I am, however, aware that the needs remain far too great to even consider that the fight might be over. In the post 2015 development agenda, this will be clearly reflected, as it will in the EU's new programmes in partner countries during the 2014-2020 period. A real support on this will be our cooperation with UN Women, with whom I hope to collaborate even more closely going forward; by sharing information, expertise and analysis in order to effectively advance women’s rights.

The novelty of the ‘He for She’ initiative is that it calls for the more active engagement of boys and men. Seeing men as allies to build gender equality and promote a shift in the social norms that affect women’s access to rights and empowerment is starting to demonstrate impact. Almost 200,000 men have already raised their voice against gender inequality, and I hope many others will follow.