HeForShe drags men, boys into gender equality

Acting president Yemi Osinbajo has launched the HeForShe, a global solidarity movement run by the women affairs and social development ministry in Nigeria Tuesday. It comes after the global launch of the movement in September 2014 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The ministry says HeForShe is a platform for high-level public advocacy and […]

Acting president Yemi Osinbajo has launched the HeForShe, a global solidarity movement run by the women affairs and social development ministry in Nigeria Tuesday.

It comes after the global launch of the movement in September 2014 at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The ministry says HeForShe is a platform for high-level public advocacy and outreach to engage men and boys as equal partners in the struggle for achieving gender equality. 

The campaign’s central message is that gender inequality is not only a women’s issue but a human rights issue, the resolution of which will benefit both women and men socially, politically and economically.

The UN Women and the ministry have both supported efforts toward a national launch of HeForShe since last year.

It worries that among 70% of the estimated people living below poverty line in Nigeria, nearly six out of 10 are women.

“Today, as a sharp contract between the income generating and livelihood opportunities of women and men continues to persist across multiple sectors industrial sector is 11% as compared with 30% for men,” said UN Women.

Nearly seven out of every 10 people involved in agriculture are women, yet they have less than 20% access to resources within the industry.

“These disparities have a significant and unequal impact on the capacity of both women and men to contribute to the economic environment of the continent’s largest economy,” said UN Women.