This week, Iceland will host the world’s first “Barbershop Conference” – a United Nations gender equality conference specifically targeting the world’s men.
It has been dubbed the Barbershop Conference in order to invoke the idea of a safe environment for men to discuss important issues – akin to a barber or locker room.
While women will be included in the conference, it aims exclusively to have a conversation with men in political, business and community leadership about how they can help solve gender equality problems the world over.
It focuses on the fact that it is those currently in positions of power (who are, of course, mostly male) who are best able play a significant role in increasing the number of women in those senior leadership positions, and thereby help to close the global gender gap.
Iceland’s foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said his country’s remarkable economic recovery from the Global Financial Crisis could be attributed to Iceland’s high levels of female representation in the workforce. As the host of the conference and the world’s leading country in all measures of gender equality, Sveinsson hopes the world will follow Iceland’s lead.
“The reason our whole economy has been doing very well is because of the big part women are playing,” he said.
“It’s for men and for guys to admit there is a problem – that they need to be part of the solution. It’s not hard to sit behind a desk in an office and say, ‘This is not my problem’. This is our problem. It is not a woman’s problem, it is a man’s problem also.”
The UN’s acknowledgment of the importance of including men in devising solutions to gender inequality began with its HeForShe campaign, launched last year by actress Emma Watson. Watson delivered a speech to the UN outlining how and why men must be included in the conversation wherever possible, and that men must acknowledge their responsibility to involve themselves.
The conference has been criticised for its exclusion of women, but Sveinsson insisted this was not the case. Women will not actually be excluded from the conference, but Iceland and the UN want to be clear that the focus is on encouraging men to be part of the solution to the gender gap.
“The idea is to provide a setting for men-to-men discussions about their own role and behaviors in realizing women´s rights and ending violence against women,” said Iceland’s Permanent Representative to the UN Greta Gunnarsdottir.
“Progress towards gender equality is being held back by unequal power relations between men and women. Overcoming thisbarrier requires not only laws and policies, it also requires a change in attitudes and behavior. For this to happen, men need to discuss with other men, masculinity, gender stereotypes, and their own responsibilities to realize gender equality and women´s rights. The Barbershop Conference will provide a forum for such a discussion.”
The Barbershop Conference to be facilitated by Iceland will begin this Wednesday, January 14th in New York City. It will focus on a variety of gender equality issues, including women’s freedom from violence, women’s representation in business and politics and equality in parental roles and responsibilities.