About
State of the World’s Fathers, produced by Promundo, is a globally recognized, biennial report and advocacy platform aiming to change power structures, policies, and social norms around care work and to advance gender equality.
An advocacy publication of MenCare, the report presents not only the state of the field, but also a vision and pathway to achieve men’s full participation in unpaid care work for the benefit of women, children, men themselves, and all individuals.
The Impact
Since 2015, State of the World’s Fathers has motivated high-level political and civil society advocates to speak out and build long-term partnerships and coalitions; and it has informed debates on paternity and parental leave policies in the Netherlands, Brazil, South Africa, and in Washington, DC. The report has been launched at the United Nations in New York and Geneva as well as in more than ten other cities around the world, inspiring translations into six languages and nine regional reports.
State of the World’s Fathers has received global attention. It has been featured in news outlets from The New York Times, to Glamour, FiveThirtyEight and The Guardian, with a potential readership of over 2.2 billion and over 42 million impressions on social media.
Inside the 2021 Report
The State of the World’s Fathers 2021 report – the fourth in the series – presents research on care work during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on structural barriers that prevent equitable distribution of caregiving between women and men. While data show that men are participating more in care work during the pandemic, data also show that the world is a long way off from achieving full equality in care work. The report provides seven solutions – from the individual to the structural level – that need to be implemented to create a more care- and gender-equal world.
About MenCare
MenCare is a global fatherhood campaign, active in more than 50 countries on five continents, which is coordinated by Promundo and Sonke Gender Justice. Our mission is to promote men’s involvement as equitable, nonviolent fathers and caregivers in order to achieve family well-being, gender equality, and better health for all parents and children. We aim for men to be allies in supporting women’s social and economic equality, in part by taking on more responsibility for childcare and domestic work. We believe that true equality will only be reached when men are taking on approximately 50 percent of the world’s child care and domestic work, and when gender stereotypes do not dictate expectations around parenting roles. MenCare’s Steering Committee is comprised of Save the Children Sweden, Oxfam America, Plan International Sweden, and MenEngage Alliance.