Georgia decided to make engaging men a priority in efforts to achieve gender equality.
Now, social norms around the roles of men and women in childcare and the household have begun to shift.
“It may seem unbelievable that a single campaign has been able to achieve so much,” said Giorgi Liparishvili, a 37-year-old teacher from Georgia. “It started to melt the ice of gender stereotypes and warm the relationship between fathers and children.”
In 2013, when Mr. Liparishvili’s son, Tevdore, was a few months old, men were largely absent from taking care of children in Georgia. Social norms strongly favoured traditional gender roles, with women being seen as in charge of childcare and the household, and men as breadwinners.
At the time, less than 18 per cent of fathers were involved in activities such as cooking, changing diapers, or bathing of small children, according to a UNFPA study conducted in 2013. And the proportion of both men and women who agreed that caregiving tasks are the mother’s responsibility stood at 81 per cent for men, and 76 per cent for women.
Setting up a broad coalition of partners in government, civil society, the cultural community and the private sector, UNFPA set out to get fathers interested in taking on a stronger role in the upbringing of their children, breaking harmful stereotypes and improving gender equality.
One campaign, MenCare, was launched by UNFPA and partner organization Care Together to encourage men to be caring, responsible fathers and non-violent partners who do their fair share of the childcare and household chores.
Mirian Jugheli is a co-founder of the MenCare campaign in Georgia. He believes attitudes to gender equality in Georgia are changing for the better.
“As a father of two, it is extremely important to be involved in the daily lives of my children,” said Mr. Jugheli. “I enjoy being involved in caring for my children. According to many experts, a harmonious family, based on the principles of equality, is the key to your child's success.”
More and more men are becoming actively involved in the lives of their families and are engaging in public discussions and becoming supporters of gender equality, he said: “In all of this, awareness-raising activities and campaigns like MenCare certainly play a big role.”
Legislative changes and partnerships promote equal parenting
Another UNFPA study, conducted in 2019 and published in 2020, revealed that Georgian society had indeed become more sensitive to issues related to gender inequality, and that deep-rooted attitudes about the roles of women and men were slowly changing. In only six years, the share of men saying that caring for children is the mother’s job had gone down by 16 per cent, and that of women even more dramatically by nearly 30 per cent.
Furthermore, a large majority of both women and men supported the adoption of a law entitling both parents to parental leave. The following year, Georgia amended the Labour Code to grant parental leave—to be taken in whole or in part—to the mother and the father.
In tandem with these changes, UNFPA started rolling out training sessions—called Men Talking to Men—across Georgia in 2016. The sessions served as safe spaces for men to talk about taking on a fair share of household chores, getting involved in childcare, caring for family members and identifying and dealing with violent behaviour. At the same time, the private sector started implementing gender-responsive family policies, with UNFPA support, and to incorporate the Men Talking to Men training in the workplace.
“For some reason it is believed that taking care of a child is not a man's responsibility and they will never be good at it,” said Giga Lursmanashvili, a father of two children and graphic designer at Tegeta Holding, one of the first companies to offer the training. “In reality, the father's role in raising a child is just as important as that of the mother, and the involvement of both parents in the process is crucial.”
More men are getting involved in reproductive health
The shift in social norms around gender roles has also affected how men relate to pregnancy and childbirth. In 2013, only one in two men would accompany their partner to pregnancy check-ups; by 2019 over 70 per cent of men did. The share of men attending the birth of their child also went up, albeit only slightly.
“These trends are quite promising,” said Dr. Niko Koridze, an obstetrician-gynaecologist at Gagua Clinic in Tbilisi, where today almost all pregnant women are accompanied by their spouses to antenatal care visits and examinations.
Gagua Clinic was the first hospital in Georgia to offer information sessions for fathers to encourage them to get involved in the process of pregnancy and childbirth.
Lela Bakradze, head of the UNFPA Office in Georgia, said more needs to be done to cement changes in attitudes towards gender in Georgian society. She stressed the role of young people in pushing for change: ”The picture is changing and it is clear that this is caused by the changes in the attitudes of the new generation.”
