MINISTER FOR MEN MANIFESTO AND PRIORITIES: 2010 UPDATE

In a post  three years ago, this site published what it thought the 12 key priorities for a Minister for Men should be, a position that has never been created by the British Government, even though it has had a Minister for Women since 1997 and also a Women's National Commission since 1969. There has been much debate on this site about the need for a Minister for Men.

Whilst there has been some mixed results from the new Coalition Government and the Liberal Democrats published a Manifesto for men at the General Election, there is now a need to update or reiterate what the priorities should be.

It would therefore be useful that before publishing updated priorities for a Minister for Men, if ever there a positionw as created, this site would be grateful for any ideas, in addition, to those covered previously.

There is no need for explanation just a line or two on any suggestion.

Posted by Skimmington

Hattip - John Kimble

Comments

[Jon]

Just a few things enter my mind.

How about a specific mention of male suicide support/counselling/research into the problem.

Also something about discouraging the creation of sessions of public services (swimming/library/university bus etc)that needlessly exclude men. Ditto for sexist charitable causes like Race for life.

Also how about investigating the gender gap in the penal system in the SAME WAY that we invest millions investigating and legislating to reduce the gender wage gap. The gap in the penal system is far greater than the wage gap. You've mentioned inequalities in sentencing but the difference seems to great to be made up of that alone. What is influencing young males to commit crime?

[Groan]

Men are by far the majority of those living rough. Young men also are the majority of the homeless. All this could do with Gov. focus.

There is of course the particular problems of young men and employment in the resession. (as well as the education issues well reported on TROM)

The Gendered nature of death injury and illness at work.

The barriers to men entering work for the NHS, Local and National Government. All bodies supposedly seeking to be "representative".

The remaining sexism in Pensions and indeed some state benefits for Children.

The existence of plainly discriminatory policies in British Airways and others based on misandry. Most pernicious in teaching and childcare.

Sexism in responding to male victims of sexual and violent crime, including Domestic Violence.

Sexism in civil and family courts based on out dated notions of female dependence.

Discrimination in the availability of leave to care for children.

Formal and informal policies in Police and Armed forces giving women less risky or demanding roles. A quiet corner this but a source of growing resentment.

The continued existence of positive action policies and groups in further ed. and industries where there is no need as women are either in the majority or equal in numbers.(Esp, the continuance of women only scholarships burseries grants training.)

Misandry in media.

The list could go on and on. Though oddly I would prefer there to be no Men or Womens Minister. We are all in it together.

[John Kimble]

Some really excellent posts, keep the ideas coming please.

It's clear that there shouldn't be a men'/women's Minister, but we're working from the present position we're in, therefore if we're forced to have a minister for Women, then Men deserve a Minister and certainly a manifesto.

[Bob]

Equal custody of children after separation or divorce has to be the most basal right of all that men have been denied.

A deliberate 'women and children' myth has been pedaled for decades and used to justify a ridiculously skewed legal system.

All men know, whether they currently have children or not, they they have almost no chance of getting custody of their kids in case of a separation. This is used by many women as a sword of Damocles over fathers. Boys also see this inequality of course and it will affect them, not to mention the girls seeing this too!

Its a basic human rights issue, a childrens' rights issue and a domestic abuse issue and it has to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Hats-off to the Lib Dems. They didn't publicise their Manifesto for Men very well. They'll definitely get my vote if they keep pressing on with this much neglected issue.

[Glen Poole]

Hi

It may interest you to know that The Men's Network in Brighton & Hove has just begun work on developing what we believe is the world's first citywide strategy for me and boys

Our first step is to identify all the local inequalities to identify statistically where the biggest problems are

We find again and again that the information exists but isn't published - not necessarily because anyone is deliberately hiding anything - but because there isn't a culture of focussing on men and boys as a special interest group it so people just overlook it

The more we focus on it, the more people are beginning to think about and starting to proactively bring information to us

And we are working with the council, nhs, police, fire service, voluntary sector etc - so it's coming from all directions now

What would make a difference was a statutory requirement for Local Strategic Partnerships to collate and publish gender data once a year - listing the top statistical inequalities for men and boys (and other groups too) - that way every local area would have local information about where the biggest problems were - and it has to be hyper-local too.

So in our city - we have a slightly larger than average life expectancy gap between men and women - 6 years - but if you go hyper local you discover that a rich woman on average will live 13 years longer than a poor man and the gap between rich and poor men is twice as big as the gap between rich and poor women

Then there's suicide, drug deaths, alcohol problems, being a victim of violence (young men the biggest group by far), being homeless, being locked up, being excluded from school, school performance, higher education performance, university attendance, graduate unemployment, long-term unemployment, being the victim of a road traffic accident,

When you consult on new services how many men do you ask - our local schools strategy for example - only 10% of parents asked were men

And then there's getting public service - time and time again people are telling us they'd like to help more men and boys but don't know how to reach them - because (perhaps) services are dominated by women and set up to serve women - not men - so even when individuals want to make a difference they can't

For example, we had an NHS initiative trying to overcome the difficulties they were having in reaching by targeting men at risk of heart problems in the workplace and a lot of employers wouldn't support it because they were concerned that he female staff would say it was sexist - even though they were actually trying to address an inequality they'd identified -that more men die of heart problems and yet less men are seen by their GP

When you start to unpick it the list goes on and on and on - which is why a statutory duty to publish data and list it so local people good see with their own eyes what the biggest problems were would make a massive difference

And that way you could begin to tackle the other massive problem which is the amount of funding that goes into women's projects vs men's pojects - it massive - I mean terrifyingly massive

And part of the problem is that because no-one names the elephant in the room - for example we have a suicide strategy that makes no reference men (by far the biggest group at risk) - it just talks about 'people' - and our sports strategy - which is supposed to support health targets to help people live longer by taking exercise (remember that 13 year gap) - targets every other inequalities group - but leaves out men (unless you are old, disabled, BME or LGBT)

And because men don't get mentioned at this level - this helps set funding priorities- and so no-one applies for funding for men's projects such as - a male suicide prevention unit, sports and health initiatives targeted at men, housing advice for fathers, domestic abuse helpline for men etc

Which leads on the other area which is tackling national legislation that discriminates against men

Having a minister for men focussed on legislation could make a radical difference

One example is housing rights for separated parents

Our local council knows that the provision they provide for separated parents is unequal - and they simply say because of national legislation there's nothing we can do

That terrifies government - the idea of giving separated parents equal rights in law - particularly around benefits and housing rights - but the difference that could make to the proportion of children having an involved dad in their lives - and the positive outcomes that come from that in terms of education, health, crime reduction - both for the child and the father - would massively outweigh the cost overtime - and that is the type of radical thinking that a minister for men could bring

Oh and finding a way have a sensible debate around the pay gap based on figures that show the true picture would be very welcome too

Oh yes, and publishing figures of the employment gap - which sectors are dominated by men or women - and particularly in public sector making links between that proportion and the quality of service and outcome deliver to men and women as a result - is it just coincidence that health and education where men/boys get the worst outcomes are dominated by women - and if there is a pattern let's have it published and look at what we can do about it

That's all - there is so much more - we need a very big ministry!

Glen Poole
The Men's Network
Brighton & Hove

[Groan]

I cannot endorse Glen's strategy strongly enough. I cannot stress strongly enough the power of asking for gender data, even in the form of Freedom of Information Requests. He is quite right that often inaction is the result of, or excused by, lack of information. Although there isn't a duty to do this as suggested by Glen. There is a duty to evaluate policies using Equality Impact Assessments by all public bodies. These include Gender. They are often available on line or can be requested through Freedom of Information. Having got copies then they can be challenged if they haven't taken into account men or have presented squewed data. Equality Impact Assessments (sometimes called Community Impact Assessments) are a requirement and can be the focus to challenge. One of the huge successes of the Men's Health movement has been to shift a lot of the focus of chunks of the NHS to considering men's health needs. It should be a model.

Homelessness is another such area. TROM readers may recall the rapid ratcheting up of the "need to fund women's services" from Ms Harman and her quangos in 2009. This was because housing departments were withdrawing funding (remember the EHRC "map of gaps") or insisting services open their doors to men (quite a few such stories in the press). They were doing this because their data indicated unmet needs of men homeless due to issues such as domestic violence and family breakdown. Paradoxically many women's groups found themselves under scrutiny precisely because Housing Departments are often the most data driven of Council services and their EIAs indicated unmet needs of men. Consequently there was a move either to transfer funding to other providers of emergency or safe housing or insist refuge services start meeting this need. This process will continue.

One of the more risible EHRC "Guidance" documents tried to explain how Councils should interpret the Equality Duty not to do this.
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/PSD/cohesion_and_equality_-_guidance_for_funders.pdf
I suspect financial pressures will override this guidance which really is about funding services that Housing Depertments consider under used and insufficiently flexible to meet the actual need.

The point is that Equality Impact Assessments discovered the "elephant" Glen referred to. This led Councils into actions that sufficiently knocked the feminist establishment to mount a campaign (national conference,ministerial statements, Map of Gaps, EHRC "Guidance"). Keep going Brighton Mens Network.

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