Bridgetown, Barbados : This year's celebration of International Women's Day under the theme, Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it! - represents a unique opportunity to position gender equality and women's empowerment at the heart of the global agenda. This from UN Women Officer-in-charge Gabrielle Henderson as she addressed the UN Women MCO Caribbean IWD Town Hall meeting; Step It Up for Gender Equality - Engaging Men and Boys. ...

UN Women MCO Caribbean launched a series of dialogues across the CARICOM region on men as partners to realise gender equality in partnership with the Government of Canada. Men were drawn from various disciplines including activists, community and social workers, and they focussed on personal meanings of masculinities, masculinity in Barbadian communitiesand understanding the connection between masculinities, power imbalances and forms of gender injustice.

Many countries including the Caribbean have created institutions that address gender inequality. Many have passed laws against gender-based discrimination. Many have made domestic violence a crime. There has been some progress in the last 20 years – but it has been slow and uneven. Today, not one single country has achieved gender equality as outlined in the BPfA.