In 1910, four years before my mother was born, all around Europe there were discussions and fights about if women were gifted enough to be a part of the assembly's that rules societies. During my mothers first seven years, she could hear people talk about small brains and the danger for women to use their brain too much. A woman who would be a part of the parliaments would, as some of the antagonists to the universal suffrage said, get problems with her fertility, amongst all other problems the families and societies would get as a result of women's right to vote and be a part of the people who rules the world.

In Sweden the women got their right to vote in 1921, which was the last of the Nordic countries. The women in Norway got their rights in 1913, Denmark 1915, Iceland 1915 and Germany in 1918. In Finland, who was first in Europe, women got their right to vote in 1906.

At the same time when men around Europe was afraid of this, as my conclusion of the resistance for women’s rights are, there were also some men who became alliances to the suffragettes in Europe. In Sweden the Men's association for women's political right to vote started in 1911.

And this is my subject today.

Some men have always been a part of the women’s liberation. But, probably in different ways. Some men were and are supporting the women’s rights and probably more men were, and might still be, against it, if we speak about gender equality in a global perspective.

I will tell you something about my way into the interest of men and gender equality, and at the same time the Swedish way to get more men involved in gender equality. Thus I am the chairperson of the Swedish association »Men for gender equality« and also have been working with these issues for a long time.

When my sons were born, my wife and I shared the parental leave. We had half of the parental leave each. Six months for my wife and six months for me. In 1983 and 1985 there were not many man taking this kind of responsibility for child care in Sweden.

In my neighbourhood I was the only father who was at home with the children. That gave me a lot of experience, in the gender equality issues and in the experience of being a man doing traditionally women issues. In Sweden,  about 6 % of the parental allowance that was used by men in 1985. Today there is about 20 %. And today, you have 16 months to share.

One of the reasons that my wife and I liked to share the practical responsibilities of parenthood, was that we wanted our sons to see  and understand that men and women can do the same things in life and that all people, both man and woman, have the same value as human beings. It was also important for us that my wife could have the same opportunities in working life as I, as a man, had.

I was interested in questions about politics and democracy even before my sons were born, but with this experience, as a man and a father, my main interests have been Gender Equality and Masculinity. At that time the first men’s movement in Sweden, »Liberate the man«, were in its last breath.

»Liberate the Man« was a network that started in the mid 1970s of men related to the women’s movement, or more as an answer to the women’s movement. They had  ideas of men’s emancipation from the traditional role of men. Among other things they put up events as camp activities, with workshops were men came together in an attempt to find out the »original masculinity« from the inside. Their inspiration came from the poet Robert Bly and his book Iron John. There were groups like this all around Europe in the mid 1970s and in the beginning of the 1980s.

As you probably already know, men in Sweden have had the opportunity to take parental leave since 1974. Did this opportunity start from nothing? Of course not.

Already in the mid nineteen sixties there were discussions about gender equality in society, and what was expected from men if women were to be in the labour market to a greater extent than before. One might expect that men would take care of the housework together with women? Or would women turn out to have a two hundred percent working day? 100 % at her job and afterwards she would have to take care of everything at home?

The Swedish society decided to provide childcare centres despite of the concerns that they might affect men to change his masculinity and his role as a husband.

In the beginning of the 1980s, only 5 % of all parental assurance was paid to men. At that time the Swedish Government offered a researcher studying the Swedish man and his ideas of gender equality. Were the Swedish men ready for gender equality? After a large survey  the researcher found out that:

Yes, of course the Swedish man would like to have more time with their children. Swedish men thought that there should be more men in the day care centres. Swedish men liked to have both men and women in all the workplaces, that means both in industrial work and in caring work like nurses and so on. Yes, Swedish men liked the idea with gender equality ...

The researcher, than came with a line that we still use in Sweden. The Swedish men like to have more gender equality, but they like someone else to work with it. And the line is: The Swedish man is a man »of principles«. »In principle« we want gender equality, but there has to be another man who will be up front, someone else than myself.

After – the association »Liberate the Men« didn’t exist any longer – in 1983, the Minister for Gender Equality Affairs put together a working group on the Role of Men. This idea group included both men and women and they worked with information and opinions-moulding activities in order to influence attitudes to male issues in different sections of society.

Among other issues, the group worked with men’s violence against women and men’s violence against other men. With questions about what happens when man become fathers. They suggested a special period in the parental insurance, so that the father could get the chance to be alone taking care of his child.

At this time there were not many discussions about the structure of men's dominance among women. Masculinity and gender structures were not a subject even at the Universities.

This governmental group resulted in a dialogue in society, about boys, men and masculinity. More men began to involve themselves in gender equality issues.

In the years of 1993/94, a new discussion about men's involvement in gender equality started. At the same time when there were discussions in Sweden about men’s responsibility for violence against women in different areas. Reports came from the war at the Balkans. These told us how soldiers raped women as a weapon to humiliate their male enemies. There were also a lot of new women shelters starting around in Sweden, to help women find their ways out from domestic violence.

When the male members in the board of »Save the Children« discussed, they took the initiative to a call in the biggest newspaper in Sweden. In the article they urged men in Sweden to take responsibility to discuss the role of then man and men’s violence against women.  Men's violence against women can not only be a woman's issue, they said.

This was the start of the Male network against violence. In a year from the start there were about 2000 men around in Sweden that worked with opinion moulding in relations to this issues. I became a part of this network which today is the biggest non government organisation of men, working with issues about men and gender equality in Sweden.

From 1998 to 2006 I also have been working with different projects about men and gender equality for the government in Sweden.

The most important one of the projects was started of the minister of gender equality in 1999, Margareta Winberg, who also was the deputy prime minister in 2002. The idea of the project came after a new discussion in Sweden about men's violence against women. There had been some gangrapes in different cities in Sweden. Young men who in group raped young girls. And there were also, in my home town, a young girl who became raped and murdered of a slightly older man in the summer of 1998. After this there were a lot of articles in newspapers about the reasons why boys and men are doing such awful things with girls and women. What can we, the male members of societies, do about it?

There were article-writers who had the view that the reason for this were the young women’s clothing and the porno-magazines the boys were reading. Some other thought the reason was the imbalance between man and women. In the association Men and gender equality we talked about the structures of masculinity. Do these crimes have anything to do with masculinity itself, the way young boys are training to become a man?

As a result of the discussion the Minister of Gender Equality took the initiative to start the project »Men and Gender Equality«. I worked with the project in three years and had, as a main issue, to find out what kind of obstacles there are for men to get involved in issues that have to do with gender equality.

Why do so few men take responsibilities for his fatherhood in more practical way, like sharing the time for household work and parental leave? What are the obstacles for men to get into jobs like nurseries, day care centres for children and of course … Why are men so silent about men’s violence?

In 2002 I finished the project with a report were I described my view to the questions and made a list of ways to involve more men in gender equality issues and to change the structure of masculinity.

During the time for the project I travelled around Sweden, talking to groups of men and women, listening to their experience of this problem. I also had a dialogue with researchers in Sweden and other countries to find theoretical and structural answers to these questions. In what ways are we solving the problems today and how will we think about the future, were the questions.

In the beginning of the 1990s, more and more men began to gather in networks and projects to promote men into changing masculinity. Some were networks of men working in day-care-centres and others were networks for men working as nurses.

Today, »Men for Gender Equality« is a non-profit and political independent national organization that promotes gender equality and  work against men's violence. We are located in about 20 cities in Sweden. Our focus is the change in the societal and social standards that connects masculinity with power and with differences in relation to femininity. That is, social norms and expectations of men and boys – often referred as the »traditional role of men« – which emerged in recent human history, and contributing to women's subordination as well as to impaired well-being for many men and boys.

A key insight is that social norms for women is not the same as men's innate or inborn characteristics. Social norms are masculine, rather than both, and a product of society and its power structure, and an instrument to maintain the imbalance between the genders.

Key target for our work is of course men and boys. But in terms of change is perhaps a series of arenas in society more important as targets, such as family, workplaces, pre-school and elementary school, military, sports, etc. All these play in different ways, key roles in maintaining and disseminating traditional masculinity built on power.

»Men for Gender Equality« promote:

That politics and public sector complement existing gender perspective on women and girls with gender perspective also on men and boys, with the goal of achieving gender equality, promoting better health, reducing crime etc. That society on a broad front develops and implements measures to actively engage men and boys and designed to more directly change also societal norms for men, associating masculinity with power. The goal is to promote children's, women's and men's rights, health and welfare. Inspire men to reflect on themselves and to dare to make visible and challenge all their opinions and ideas about men and women and about sexuality. Encourage especially fathers but also mothers, to share equally in parental leave.

»Men for Gender Equality« is mainly active in Sweden, but participating increasingly in international networks and contexts. »Men for Gender Equality« is a member of the global alliance »Men Engage«, and coordinates the regional European network within »Men Engage«.

To conclude my speech, I would like to read a quote from my friend, the American sociologist Michael Kimmel. These are the basic insight we have in »Men for Gender Equality« on the importance of promote knowledge about gender equality on men. And I quote:

»I believe that as gender inequality decreases, the differences among people – differences grounded in race, class, ethnicity, age, sexuality as well as gender – will emerge in at context in which each of us can be appreciated for our individual uniqueness as well as our commonality.

Today I think men hinders the gender equality because they don’t have the knowledge about this issue. Tomorrow I think men and women can’t live without gender equality.«

Thank you for listening!