I initially intended to open this piece with the sentence “Where are the men at CSW”?—in capital letters!—because the cause of gender equality is not the concern or responsibility of women alone. Men are also harmed by gendered dynamics of hierarchy, power, and competition. Men also have a stake and a vital role to play in building a gender-equal world. Such a world will only emerge as all members of society are increasingly working shoulder-to-shoulder to achieve that reality.

As I discussed this idea further, with both male and female colleagues, I became interested in a more nuanced question. What enables movement in this direction? Of the men that do attend the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), what motivates them? What sustains them? What facilitates their participation? 

The priority theme of this year’s Commission is timely in this regard because it highlights an often-overlooked facet advancing gender equality: the role of the institutions of society. 

Our world is losing trust in institutions and often overemphasizes the individual. Articulating the role of institutions as social actors in their own right can therefore be challenging. But CSW itself, if approached in a thoughtful way, can be seen as an arena where we can collectively explore how institutional structures might create space for men as well as women to address gender divides together.

During past Commissions, I have observed that male participants tend to see CSW as a women-first or women-only space. Men at CSW listen more than participate. They want to avoid stepping on the toes of established women actors. They hesitate to speak unless they have been invited, and even then offer careful and constrained words that they are sure will be well-received.

These are the very kinds of challenges that women face in countless other spaces, of course. And it is indisputable that men are overrepresented in numerous processes and fora, particularly at senior levels. CSW provides an important venue for foregrounding new approaches to organization and decision-making, drawing from the deep reservoirs of female leadership and feminist thought around the world. 

And yet we must not repurpose destructive forms of hierarchy or oppressive conceptions of power by simply swapping women for men within them. Every individual, irrespective of gender, is negatively impacted by the norms designed to benefit a handful, whether unhealthy gender expectations, unjust and violent interactions, or any other. The ultimate goal is to deconstruct gender norms that harm and hold back men and women alike—and institutions have a unique role to play in advancing this work. 

What might this look like at CSW? Perhaps by reflecting in practice the reality that the quality of leadership exhibited by those serving in institutions depends more on the necessary qualities an individual brings to the role—from generosity, compassion, and service, to determination, courage, and strength—than the individual’s gender. Perhaps by allowing common commitment to the cause of gender equality to transcend loyalty to any one department, program, agency, or funding source. Perhaps by ensuring that internal institutional processes reflect essential moral and ethical convictions: that women and men have always been equal in capacity and potential, for example, or that the welfare of any segment of humanity is inextricably bound up with the welfare of the whole.

As a relative newcomer to the gender equality space, I am immensely grateful to the work of those who have paved the way for the current and future generations of well-wishers of humanity. I think we owe it to the countless powerful women who have come before us to creatively imagine a gender-equal world co-created by all. As I join those who have dedicated their lives to this important principle, I look forward to a transformed CSW that invites the efforts of men ready to work shoulder to shoulder with women in a shared endeavor, with full support of our societal institutions.  

 

Liliane Nkunzimana is a Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations