Putting the MEN in MENstruation – why including men in the conversation is so important.

Emma Watson recently gave a powerful speech at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, an event hosted by UN Women, marking the launch of the HeForShe Campaign. This campaign calls out to men and boys to join in the fight for gender equality. Take a few minutes to watch her incredible speech now:

Over the next 12 months, the campaign intends to mobilize one billion men and boys as advocates and agents of change for gender equality. ”We need boys and men working with us. HeForShe is a global solidarity movement to end gender inequality by 2030. The goal is to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change in the effort to achieve equality. When women are empowered, the whole of humanity benefits,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

At Femme International, we strongly believe that including men and boys in the road towards gender equality is the key to its success. We need to challenge men and boys to recognize that gender equality not only benefits their sisters, wives and mothers, but also themselves. A just society is a prosperous society, and we need to make it happen.

This fall, Femme is proudly putting the MEN in MENSTRUATION! We are happy to announce the launch of a new Boys Health Education Program that will be implimented in Moshi, Tanzania. The program will focus on teaching boys essential reproductive and sexual health lessons, but also focusing on the bigger picture of gender equality, and of course, menstruation.

Boys never have the opportunity to learn what menstruation is, as this knowledge is passed on to young girls in secrecy – which only makes it more taboo! Naturally, boys will find this ritual bizarre, even a bit scary, which translates into hurtful schoolyard mockery. By using education and conversation, we will teach boys that menstruation is natural and normal, and nothing to be scared of. Every woman is affected by this phenomenon, and she does not deserve to be mocked for it. We want to encourage open conversations about this, and to build a network of young people that are not afraid to be proud of their bodies. 

This fall, we will be engaging 200 young men in the communities around Moshi, encouraging them to talk about what gender equality means to them. It is our hope that this program will not only create men who are actively aware of the gender disparity, but also active in reducing it. Women may be the backbone of society, but men need to be there too. We will not be able to build fair, just and successful societies if half of the population is left out of the process. Men and women need to be engaged equally, and we can’t wait to start working with the men and boys of East Africa.

We want to change the way the world thinks about menstruation, and we need men and women to contribute to a global conversation in order to achieve this goal. 

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