Till Örebro universitet

Gender relations have increasingly changed throughout the past decades, and European gender politics have productively accompanied these improvements. Still Europe is far from being a gender-equal society.

For a long period gender equality policies have been contextualised mainly as a ’women’s issue’ – as women have been the driving force behind gender equality strategies and have been seen as the only ones who benefit from a more equal society. Men as the ‘other gender’ have been taken less into account in the context of gender equality.

In the last decade, however, men and masculinities have increasingly become subjects of studies and gender policies in the EU. Under EU presidency, conferences on men, masculinities and equality took place in Sweden (2001) and Finland (2006). The Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-20101 specifically encouraged men to take up care responsibilities and to share leave entitlements with women. A horizontal priority on gender roles including the need for involvement of men in gender equality policies and addressing inequalities affecting men, such as early school leaving, literacy and occupational health, is present in the current European Commission's Strategy for Equality between Women and Men (2010-2015)2. Additionally, strategies like gender mainstreaming seem to have created an initial awareness of the issue of men in gender equality and the establishment of some pathways towards institutional practice. Therefore, contemporary gender equality strategies as well as scientific studies should involve both men and women and take into account analysis of the role of both genders in romoting gender equality, dismantling structural inequalitiesand changing gender roles.