Men against violence and for equality between women and men
Published
| Region | National coverage |
|---|---|
| Title of the Programme | Human Rights |
| Title of the Project | Men against violence and for equality between women and men |
| Number of the Project | LP-HRMGSC-013 |
| Project Promoter | Open Society (Otevřená společnost, o.p.s.) |
| Status | Estimated project duration: 10/2022 - 4/2024 |
| More Information | Target groups:
Web site: |
| Total Eligible Costs | 102 593 EUR |
| Grant | 102 593 EUR (100 %) |
Project description:
In the Czech Republic, up to 95 percent of victims of domestic and gender-based violence are women, and 32 percent of women in the Czech Republic have experienced physical or sexual violence. The purpose of the project is to reduce the occurrence of gender-based violence by focusing on one of its root causes, the persistent inequality between women and men due to the low involvement of men, especially those in decision-making positions, and also due to persistent authoritative ideas about masculinity.
If someone is perceived as less valuable, others and he himself tend not to problematize as much the hardship to which he is subjected. And if the double standard of understanding the value of men and women is seen as normal, there is a tendency to see discipline, symbolic violence and physical violence applied to women as normal, natural, or traditional. Many Czech men, including those in decision-making positions, still associate masculinity with superiority, overlook and question the reasons for addressing the gender equality agenda, while at the same time, the majority act in decision-making positions and without them changes cannot be achieved. There is a lack of political will and leadership to promote the agenda, it is implemented only formally. The prerequisite for solving the problem is that men begin to reflect on their superior position.
The advocacy campaign will be based on a (revised) policy paper, created by the project implementer, entitled Men and Power in the Public Sphere. The aim is to motivate active and potentially equality-open men from the communal level. The project plans to make 20 men from village leaders more sensitive and active so that they take the content of the policy paper as their own, i.e. that, with the support of the newly formed group, they try to fulfill as many of his points as possible, which men in decision-making positions can do on a personal and local (communal) level. There will also be women in the formed group, the group will be composed of municipal-level politicians and gender experts from NGOs and academia. The goal is to achieve concrete positive changes in four municipalities, to document these changes as examples of good practice and to present them in the form of an advocacy campaign to politicians from national politics, and thus win new ambassadors of non-violence and equality in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (minimum ten). The project implementers will also strive for institutional changes, such as the establishment of a senate working group that will focus on gender inequality.
A documentary theater was innovatively chosen as an educational activity. As part of the project, a total of six so-called ´genderman discussions´, which are similar to qualitative research (focus groups), will first be organized. They allow men to more easily see gender issues that they are usually unable to see themselves, in the first phase men and women discuss separately, and in the second and third together. Men and women from the target group will then participate in the premiere of the documentary theater production, which will also work with their own opinions from genderman discussions.