Harry and Meghan back 'positive masculinity' charity that 'engages men as allies in equality'
25 July 2023, 08:29
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have lent their support to a US charity that aims to get men more involved in the push for gender equality.
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The royal couple's own charity, Archewell, is backing the State of the World's Fathers report by the Equimundo Center for Masculinities and Social Justice.
Washington DC-based Equimundo says it works on "promoting environments that support boys and young men to live out diverse, equitable and healthy masculinities".
The charity also "engage[s] men in gender equality" by "transforming intergenerational patterns of harm and promoting patterns of care, empathy and accountability among boys and men throughout their lives."
Harry and Meghan said they were "proud to have supported this report as well as Equimundo's continued work to promote gender equality around the globe."
They said via a statement on the Archewell website: "The 2023 data shows that men are increasingly involved in caregiving and would like to increase their care work at home, although deeply ingrained social norms and a lack of supportive policies and power structures discourage them from doing so."
Equimundo's World Fathers report says it "recognizes care work as the bedrock of society, and calls for continued advancements towards gender equality."
The charity also said that more media representation of men in caregiving roles would help.
Harry has previously said he loves being a father and bringing up his children.
Speaking in 2022, he told NBC: "What do I love about fatherhood? All of it. The chaos, the learning, the reminder of just every element of yourself, your soul, right?
"When you are not a parent you can get sucked into all sort of different stuff and you can maybe sometimes forget who you are. And suddenly as a parent, especially now, Archie is at the age he is at, asking all the questions.
"Why this? Why that? Why that? And instead of just trying to move it on, I give him the most honest answer I can," he said.
"And then it goes on and on and on until he's satisfied. And then that's it. It's done. Otherwise it ends up with - because the world is round and that it is the way life is."
And Meghan has previously said that men needed to play a role in gender equality.
She said in 2019: "In terms of gender equality, which is something I have championed for a long time, I think that conversation can't happen without men being a part of it."
