It’ll come as a surprise to many but today is actually International Men’s Day. International Men’s Day falls on 19th November every year.
On 8th March every year, the same questions get asked again and again, especially on social media. The question quite often is, ‘is there an International Men’s Day?’ and ‘when is it?’
Why 8th March? Oh, that’s when International Women’s Day is celebrated.
It wasn’t until 1999 that the day began to take shape. Jerome Teelucksingh, a history lecturer at University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, organised events for International Men’s Day, holding the day on his father’s birthday.Â
The six aims of International Men’s Day are as follows:
- To promote positive male role models; not just movie stars and sports men but every day, working class men who are living decent, honest lives
- To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society, community, family, marriage, child care, and to the environment.
- To focus on men’s health and wellbeing; social, emotional, physical and spiritual.
- To highlight discrimination against men; in areas of social services, social attitudes and expectations, and law
- To improve gender relations and promote gender equality
- To create a safer, better world; where people can be safe and grow to reach their full potential
The theme for 2020 is the idea of “Better Health for Men and Boys”. The International Men’s Day website says the theme promotes “the need to value men and boys and help people make practical improvements in men and boy’s health and well-being”.
