Profile: Peter Mathieson

Anonymous, Men: Education, Hong Kong

Peter Mathieson is the president of the University of Hong Kong and an impact champion for HeForShe.

He has made gender equity a mainstream topic in his university and changed procedures so that equal opportunities issues are considered at all levels of decision-making. As part of his role as a HeForShe gender equality champion, he has committed to launching gender sensitization training, which will reach all university members by 2021. This will educate students and staff on unconscious bias and other forms of inequality, such as sexual harassment and violence.

When asked what motivates his work towards gender equality, he said: ‘I do it for so many reasons: because it is "the right thing to do", it is fair and just, it opposes bias (conscious or unconscious), it optimises use of precious resources and it is in the best interests of employers as well as employees.’

Profile: Feridun Hamdullahpur

Anonymous, Men: Education, Canada

Feridun Hamdullahpur is the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo.

As a HeForShe impact champion, he has committed the university to:

Boosting female student participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) to build the pipeline of future female leaders in traditionally male dominated disciplines.

Enhancing female faculty representation to improve the campus environment today and to drive towards parity in the future.

Attracting and advancing female leaders into senior academic and administrative university positions.

One part of this process is the introduction of a HeForShe Scholarship. Launched in September 2015, the University of Waterloo HeForShe Impact Scholarship will award 24 outstanding female students a total of $288,000 over the next four years as a part of ongoing efforts to achieve transformative and enduring gender equality.

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He sees his role as being about ‘breaking down barriers so that those who self-identify as women and girls can pursue their dreams with equal opportunity, encouragement, openness and support. As a STEM-intensive University, Waterloo needs to promote the message that women equally belong in and excel in STEM. What’s more, we need to deliberately create clear paths for women to pursue studies in fields like Computer Science, Engineering and Maths so we can overcome social barriers that have no place in a twenty-first century university.’

Profile: Dominic Barton

Anonymous, Men: Business, United Kingdom

Dominic Barton is the global managing director of McKinsey & Company, an international consultancy firm, and a HeForShe corporate impact champion.

Along with a group of dedicated leaders at McKinsey, he helped launch ‘All In’. This is an initiative that engages both male and female colleagues to address gender equality issues that hold the whole company all back, as well as aiming for a 50/50 split of women and men in the firm. As part of the initiative, McKinsey has broadened its recruiting outreach, built sponsorship programs, upgraded flexible work arrangements and implemented unconscious bias training.

Dominic Barton says: ‘While gender equality is important from a moral standpoint, it is just as critical as a business imperative and core to building a stronger society. It will be much more difficult to meet the challenges of our time if we do not fairly recognize and leverage the talent of half of the world’s population.’

Who does the housework?

Anonymous, Men: Fathers, United Kingdom

Both my parents work full time. When people ask me about my mum's cooking, I find it quite refreshing to say 'Actually, my dad does all the cooking.' Cooking is not my mum's thing and she is quite disorganised when it comes to household chores, such as laundry, dishes, tidying and the like. Fortunately, my dad is a fairly good cook and also quite organised, so it makes sense for him to do it. Thanks for feeding us, Dad! 

A Businessman, Fireman, Policeman - Where Are the Women?

Anonymous, Men: Friends , United Kingdom

I was in a careers talk with a friend. There was a male speaker talking about different skills and talents which are useful in certain jobs. He used a wide variety of examples of different professions and lots of personal stories; it was an interesting and informative talk.

When we left the hall, I asked my friend how he found it. ‘It was good,’ he said, and was quiet for a moment. Then he said: ‘But did you notice that whenever he used an example – even if it was a hypothetical one – it was always about a man? A businessman, a fireman, an actor, a policeman. I mean, what does that say to the women in the audience about their career prospects? The speaker might not even have meant to, but he was basically reinforcing that male is the default and the women in the audience are not a priority.’

This is a friend who I’ve been talking to about sexism for a while and had never seemed so interested or concerned, so it was amazing to see how much he’d taken on board and that he noticed this when it had completely passed me by. He then went on to share this with our other friends and told them emphatically how wrong he found it, so that they were made aware of it too and looked out for it in other talks.

Our fight too

Anonymous, Men: Public Space, United Kingdom

Troubled by society’s treatment of women, David Veshkini started the WeCanBeBetter Campaign. WCBB is an Ottawa-based solidarity movement that encourages and empowers men and boys to become agents of change in the prevention of violence against women. David emphasizes the need for a movement like WeCanBeBetter: ‘For years, women have been fighting to prevent, end and better respond to violence towards women, and now men need to join in on these issues.’

It is a sad reality in our world today that one out of every three women globally has been physically, sexually assaulted or otherwise abused in her lifetime. That means that out of the roughly 175,000 girls born daily worldwide, almost 60,000 will experience violence during their lives. We need to take these numbers seriously. ‘Statistics are humans with the tears wiped off’: behind every number stand women whose lives have been scarred by violence. With that in mind, David believes that the high levels of violence by men against women should be viewed as men’s greatest failure.

WCBB was founded to change that: David believes in the power of engaging men on violence prevention through local grassroots initiatives. ‘I want to challenge other men to use their voices and actions collectively to stand up to gender-based violence and its contributing factors, and to share with women the responsibility of ending it. Silence will be our greatest regret.’

David is currently the case manager at Ottawa Victim Services, a community-based organization that provides emotional and practical support to victims of crime and tragic circumstances. Feel free to engage with David on twitter @DVeshkini on issues of gender-based violence, prevention, bystander intervention and gender equality, or engage with the conversation by tweeting at the WeCanBeBetter handle @WCBB__

Equality at home

Anonymous, Men: Family, United Kingdom

I was fortunate enough to marry a man who happens to like ironing, doing it whilst he watches sport on the telly - and he's much faster (and better) at it than I am. He's also a brilliant cook. We gave up going out for Sunday lunch a long time ago, because I've never come across a restaurant that comes close to cooking a roast as good as his.

He's also good at woodwork. And this has led onto trying out jewellery making, which he's turning out to be pretty good at. He brews beer, makes jam and bakes bread. And he's got a great eye for a good colour scheme when it comes to decorating.

This is not about him making a token gesture and doing what some men might see as 'female roles' to tick a box every now and then. In the decades we've been together, we've simply taken on the work that each of us happens to enjoy and we share the doing of things that neither of us enjoys. I'm as capable as he is of handling a power drill or sawing down a tree, and I tend to manage our finances and any building work we have done.

Does that make me butch and him effeminate?

No, it makes us a good team.

Island Rescue

Anonymous, Men: Friends , United Kingdom

My friend and his family had been going to this beautiful Greek island for sometime. Over the years, they had made friends with the local British woman who had organised the properties they rented over the years.

One year, on the morning they were due fly home, she turned up on the door step to say goodbye, but she was different. She did not look at them and appeared tired, downcast and tearful. The simple question 'What's up?' revealed that for sometime her local boyfriend had been beating her up, using work and financial pressures as an excuse. The night before she had been throttled and thrown against a wall. She had left while he was sleeping and spoken to a local friend, but she wanted to get out and go home. Within an hour my friend had talked through the options. He agreed to be a witness, documented and photographed her injuries, assisted with a safe house, created a confidential alternate mobile contact and helped sort flights home in three days time. He used the mobile to ensure she was safe when they got home, monitored that she got to Britain safely and spoke to her parents. Eight years later she was married to a new partner.

Violence against women is never acceptable. We can all help.

Mr Equality

Anonymous, Men: Family, United Kingdom

My husband is kind, patient, helpful and has a great sense of humour. He has always honoured me and our two daughters.  He has been a caring husband for more than 40 years and loving father for more than 30. He shows great respect to other women, treating them with courtesy and going out of his way to help. He has taken steps in his professional work life to encourage women into engineering jobs. He is a terrific mentor to younger women and men.

My Brother-In-Law: Losing to Gain a Whole Lot More

Aston, Men: Family, United Kingdom

Growing up in a world where the vast majority of people in positions of influence are men communicates many damaging messages to young people. It says to young women that positions of power are not for them. It says to young men that, to be a man, this is the level of achievement they must pursue at all costs.  Consequently, becoming more of a man is deemed to mean gaining more power and ‘winning’ in life. Anything or anyone which gets in the way or slows you down must be ignored or gotten rid of. After all, to be delayed in the pursuit of success is an unmanly sign of weakness.

Many see the solution to this inequality as encouraging the ‘win at all costs’ mentality amongst women as well. That way we might perhaps see greater equality in positions of influence and women may avoid taking a disproportionate amount of the burden in a family. However, we must remember that it is men who have got this wrong, not women. A race to the top of society would mean a gender relationship race to the bottom. The solution instead lies in men shedding the insecurity that says that ‘I must always be winning’. Instead, men should seek to support and encourage others – particularly the women in their life – even if that comes at the expense of their own ‘success’.

A great man who inspires me to do this is my brother-in-law. When he married my sister and said ‘in sickness and in health’, he was already aware of the consequences of those words. Yet he chose for the rest of his life to put my sister first in the good times and the bad, at personal cost to himself and potentially at a cost to other ambitions he harboured. He does do incredible things in his career, transforming lives and being a role model for young men, but he is not striving to ‘succeed’ at all costs. He instead seeks to be a supportive and loving husband, dad, brother and friend – and sometimes that involves giving things up.

Clearly, if I was talking about a woman entering into a marriage this would not be remarkable or noteworthy (and, indeed, my sister seeks to put him first too) but I am realising that amongst husbands this is remarkable. And it allows my sister to also sacrifice and lovingly give to her family and friends, knowing that by doing so she is not being exploited by her husband, nor is she bearing those burdens alone.

And because of my brilliant sister and brother-in-law, my niece will grow up knowing gender equality and mutual sacrifice in the most intimate relationships she knows. Losing is definitely underrated.