The Coalition Government has outlined its commitment to tackle the inequalities men experience following a campaign led by The Men’s Network.
Nearly 100 individuals and organisations working with men and boys backed a joint letter to parliament on International Men’s Day 2011 – click here to see the letter.
The letter – which was created in the wake of The First National Conference for Men and Boys – outlined our shared concern that men and boys are showing up unequally is areas such as health, fatherhood, education, criminal justice and community safety.
The Government has responded by declaring that it is committed to “addressing existing inequalities for men” acknowledging that “health is one example where inequalities exist” that “men have more than three times the rate of suicide of women” that boys underperform girls in school and that “fathers want to be more actively involved in bringing up their children”.
The Government has also confirmed that the Equality Act 2010 applies “just as much to men as women” and that the measures in the Act can be used to address unfairness against men and boys.
However, The Government has fallen short of committing to consult with men and men’s groups about how it can respond more effectively to the specific needs of men and boys in the UK – as requested by the signatories of our 2011 letter (click here to see who backed the letter).
You can read the Government’s full response by clicking here or read the abridged version below:
“The Government is committed to equal treatment and equality of opportunity for all and to addressing existing inequalities for men….wherever they are found.
“The Government…..is equally committed to taking action to address the needs of men and boys where the evidence shows inequalities exist.
“Health is one example where inequalities exist and the Government is taking action to address this.
“Further, the Government recognises that overall men have more than three times the rate of suicide of women.
“On educational attainment, the Government recognises that there are gender disparities in some subjects including English and science. To improve boys’ attainment in English, the Government is putting a renewed emphasis on the acquisition of literacy skills.
“In addition, the Government values the role of dads, understanding that fathers want to be more actively involved in bringing up their children and that more and more men are doing so.
“Finally, the Equality Act 2010 is one of the most comprehensive equality laws in the world. Broadly, the protections it provides apply just as much to men as women. The measures in the Act can be used to address unfairness against men and boys.
“For example the positive action provisions allow employers to target measures to help men in circumstances where they are underrepresented in the workforce or where they are suffering disadvantage connected with being a man.”
Tracey Boscott, Home Office Spokeswoman
Glen Poole is UK co-ordinator for International Men's Day, Director at the consultancy Helping Men and news editor of insideMAN magazine. Follow him on twitter @HelpingMen or find out more about his work at www.helpingmen.co.uk.
Men's News From Brighton & Hove, England 
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The scope of the “police” problem – and hence the Home Office problems is summarised even in the title of this following document: http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/crime/2009/200909CRIVAW01.pdf . Men’s notions of chivalry virtually always support “protecting” women and children. As a sea-faring nation “Women and children first!” has always been the British call. And on page 29 of the above document you can read the ACPO national estimate of 25,231 male serial abusers of women – of about in round figures 20 milllion men. Pro-feminsit Professor Michael P Johnson chooses to call those men “intimate terrorists”. His researches expose figures of 7 men per 1000 being “intimate terrorists”. But his research also reveals 5 per 1000 women being “intimate terrorists”, too. Applying simple maths my extrapolation of the missing equivalent figure would be 18,022 women. The “specific impact tests” on the last page of the following cost analysis make very interesting reading, too. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/domestic-violence-disclosure/dom-violence-disclo-pilots-ia?view=Binary . PS. I chose to use Professor Johnson’s figures because I can remember them more easily rather than, in my opinion, the more reliable research of Archer and Graham-Kevan. From these two documents you can read that our problems go very much deeper. Compare the costs with the sheer volume of money already in use by radical feminism via REFUGE and Women’s Aid. Check the number of Male members on the various Domestic violence Forums, and the same on the “Pan London.” There are virtually no men there. That is where the wheeling and dealing is done. The men are all at work, earning theirs and their family’s daily bread. The radical feminists have turned “it” into their daily bread! David Eggins (Temper! Domestic Violence)
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I concur completely with David Eggins. In my opinion, there are no female politicians who are pro- man – Lynne Featherstone is only one in many bitter feminist politicians. Couple that to all the weak men we have in the three major parties and it’s no wonder men have had problems in getting fairer legislation through.
[…] letter to parliament on International Men’s Day 2011. To read the Home Office’s response click here now. To find out the Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone failed to respond to the letter click […]
Sounds like the coalition backed off from mentioning the problems men (as well as boys) are having in further education, and of course, even when such articles do surface, they never ever mention the male-blaming male-bashing culture of “Critical Studies on Men (CSM)” which is the order of the day throughout the academy, but stems from the gender studies departments.
I am suing Europe’s largest gender studies department, at LSE, for its use of male-blaming bias – and ask all who have not donated to the legal fighting fund yet, to do so now, as the court hearing is on March 13th – and the facts of the case are very strong, as you can see, along with the press, interviews and hit video, at sexismbusters.org
Reblogged this on krakul19.