International Men's Day

International Men's Day (IMD) is a global awareness day for many issues that men face, including abuse, homelessness, suicide, and violence, celebrated annually on 19 November. The objectives of celebrating an International Men's Day are set out in "All the Six Pillars of International Men's Day". It is also an occasion to celebrate boys' and men's lives, achievements and contributions, in particular for their contributions to nation, union, society, community, family, marriage, and childcare.

History

Inaugurated on 7 February 1992 by Thomas Oaster, the project of International Men's Day was conceived one year earlier, on 8 February 1991. The project was re-initialised in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago. The longest running celebration of International Men's Day is Malta, where events have occurred since 7 February 1994. As Malta was the only country that observed the February date of celebrating men and their contributions to society, the Maltese AMR Committee voted in 2009 to shift the date for IMD to 19 November.

Jerome Teelucksingh, who revived the event, chose 19 November to honour his father's birthday and also to celebrate how on that date in 1989 Trinidad and Tobago's men's football team had united the country with their endeavours to qualify for the World Cup. Teelucksingh has promoted International Men's Day as not just a gendered day but a day where all issues affecting men and boys can be addressed. He has said of IMD and its grassroots activists, "They are striving for gender equality and patiently attempt to remove the negative images and the stigma associated with men in our society."

Unlike International Women's Day, International Men's Day is not officially recognised by the United Nations.

Early background

Calls for an International Men's Day have been noted since at least the 1960s, when many men were reported to "have been agitating privately to make 23 February International Men's Day, the equivalent of 8 March, which is International Women's Day". In the Soviet Union this day was the Red Army and Navy Day since 1922, which in 2002 was renamed to Defender of the Fatherland Day. The date was informally viewed a male counterpart of Women's Day (8 March) in some territories of the union, however due to the day's limited focus to historical events some countries of the former union have moved to adopt the more 'male specific' 19 November as International Men's Day, including Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Georgia.

In 1968, the American journalist John P. Harris wrote an editorial in the Salina Journal highlighting a lack of balance in the Soviet system, which promoted an International Women's Day for the female workers without promoting a corresponding day for male workers. Harris stated that although he did not begrudge Soviet women their March day of glory, its resulting gender inequality clearly exhibited a serious flaw in the communist system, which, "makes much of the equal rights it has given the sexes, but as it turns out, the women are much more equal than the men". Harris stated that while the men toiled along in their grooves doing what their government and womenfolk tell them to do, there was no day when males are recognised for their service, leading Harris to conclude that, "This strikes me as unwarranted discrimination and rank injustice." Similar questions about the inequality of observing women's day without a corresponding men's day occurred in media publications from the 1960s through to the 1990s, at which time the first attempts at inaugurating international Men's Day are recorded.

In the early 1990s, organizations in the United States, Australia and Malta held small events in February at the invitation of Thomas Oaster who directed the Missouri Center for Men's Studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Oaster successfully promoted the event in 1993 and 1994, but his following attempt in 1995 was poorly attended and he ceased plans to continue the event in subsequent years. Australians also ceased to observe the event (until they re-established it on 19 November 2003) whilst the Maltese Association for Men's Rights continued as the only country that continued to observe the event each year in February. Formerly being the only country still observing the original February date, the Maltese AMR Committee voted in 2009 to begin observing the day on 19 November in order to be synchronised with the rest of the world.

Although International Men's and Women's Day are considered to be 'gender-focused' events, they are not ideological mirror images because they highlight issues that are considered unique to men or to women. The history of IMD primarily concerns celebrating issues that are considered unique to the experiences of men and boys, along with an emphasis on positive role models, which is especially "deemed necessary in a social context which is often fascinated with images of males behaving badly... In highlighting positive male role models IMD attempts to show that males of all ages respond much more energetically to positive role models than they do to negative stereotyping".

Six pillars

International Men's Day objectives are given as:

1. To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and sports men but everyday, working-class men who are living decent, honest lives.
2. To celebrate men's positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and the environment.
3. To focus on men's health and wellbeing: social, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
4. To highlight discrimination against men in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law.
5. To improve gender relations and promote gender equality.
6. To create a safer, better world, where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential.

Yearly themes

As well as the six pillars, an optional secondary theme for IMD has usually been suggested by world coordinators, such as peace in 2002, men's health in 2003, healing and forgiveness in 2007, positive male role models in 2009 and 'our children's future' in 2010.

• 2011: "Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life"
• 2012: "Helping Men and Boys Live Longer, Happier and Healthier Lives"
• 2013: "Keeping Men and Boys Safe"
• 2014: "Working Together for Men and Boys"
• 2015: "Working to Expand Reproductive Options for Men"
• 2016: "Stop Male Suicide". In every country except China, the rate of suicide in men is higher than that of women, in some cases as high as six men for every one woman, and life expectancy is routinely less for men than women in all countries. To this end, "Global Action on Men's Health (GAMH) wants the World Health Organization and other international public health bodies, as well as individual governments, to acknowledge the scale of the problems facing men and boys and to take sustained action to tackle them. This work should sit alongside continuing action to improve the health of women and girls."
• 2017: "Celebrating Men And Boys In All Their Diversity". The emphasis on "...A Call To Action for individuals, institutions, and organizations to innovate the manner in which they design and deliver resources and support services which speak to the unique needs and issues of men and boys".
• 2018: "Positive Male Role Models"
• 2019: "Making a Difference for Men and Boys"
• 2020: "Better Health for Men and Boys"
• 2021: "Better relations between men and women"
• 2022: "Helping men and boys". In Australia, "Celebrating mateship" (#MakeTime4Mates). "Men Leading by Example".
• 2023: "Zero Male Suicide" In the UK, the themes continue to be on supporting men and boys' wellbeing (#supportingmenandboys), supporting men's charities (#supportingmenscharities) and being positive about men, masculinity and fathers.
• 2024: "Positive male role models".
• 2025: "Supporting men and boys".

Regions

Africa

Botswana

International Men's Day was inaugurated in Botswana in 2011 by coordinator Geneuvieve Twala. One of the International Men's Day themes promoted was to help foster youth to unlock their creative identities to allow them to share their gifts with peers, family and the community, and to be seen and heard for who they are and not how they are perceived.

Burundi

On 19 November 2012, Burundi joined the world for the first time in celebrating the International Men's Day, as Association for the Protection of the Man in Distress (APHD Burundi) denounced violence inflicted on men by their wives. Vincent Bukuru, chairman of the APHD-Burundi said, "Violence on men rises when the man loses his job, during the end of year festivities (Christmas and New Year) and at the International Women's Day (8 March)." Bukuru called on the Burundian government to conduct a national investigation on types and origins of violence that men are facing, their consequences and their gravity which he stated is a violation of human rights.