A/HRC/38/24 C. Fostering an equal share of responsibility in domestic life 23. Unequal responsibilities of men and women in domestic life are a major factor limiting the participation of women and girls in public life and economic activity. Such an unbalanced distribution also exacerbates the exposure of women and girls to domestic and intimate partner violence. Gender stereotypes perpetuate the image of childcare and domestic work as being women’s tasks. Men, on the other hand, “must” be the main breadwinners. This results in a disproportionately heavy domestic work burden for women and girls, confining them to the private sphere and restricting their access to education and their participation in political, economic, social and cultural activities. Therefore, many initiatives focus on engaging men and boys to accept and embrace an equal share of childcare and domestic work, as well as to accept and support women’s empowerment more broadly. 24. For example, introducing or expanding paternity leave was considered strategic for a gender-transformative impact in several countries. 42 Sweden reported that men’s equal sharing of parental leave with women had proven to have a positive effect, including in terms of an increase in women’s wages, improved relationships between fathers and their children and a reduction in violence.43 In Brazil, the legal framework for early childhood, including the law that extends paternity leave 44 and the law that prohibits corporal punishment, 45 is considered a key legal intervention in transforming men’s role in the family. 46 It was reported that programmes on preventing violence that targeted young fathers in Rwanda47 and the post-conflict northern region of Uganda 48 and that promoted the positive engagement of men in childcare and their equal sharing of childcare responsibilities with women led to a reduction in intimate partner violence and violence against children. 25. In Brazil and Rwanda, civil society organizations are taking initiatives to facilitate men’s support for women’s economic empowerment. Such initiatives are based on the research that suggests that women might experience higher levels of violence by male partners when they have higher levels of income than their male partners, 49 as such a state of affairs might be perceived as a threat to a man’s role as breadwinner. In Brazil, an initiative aims to transform men’s negative gender attitudes towards women’s economic activities, in support of the national Bolsa Família programme. 50 The Bolsa Família Companion programme shifted men’s perceptions and made them accept a larger proportion of childcare and domestic responsibilities, thus freeing up women’s time for economic activities. Male participants in the programme also accepted more equal decisionmaking power for women concerning family spending. 51 The initiative in Rwanda indicated that involving men and their partners in the community activities and discussions on 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 E.g. Brazil, Czechia, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. See the submissions by Czechia, France, Promundo Brazil and Rutgers. See also Programme P, a toolkit for reaching expectant fathers as partners in maternal and child health and violence prevention, developed by Promundo. Submission by Sweden. Brazil, Act No. 13257 of 8 March 2016. Available at www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato20152018/2016/lei/l13257.htm. Brazil, Act No. 13010/2014 of 26 March 2014. Available at http://legislacao.planalto.gov.br/legisla/legislacao.nsf/Viw_Identificacao/lei%2013.0102014?OpenDocument. Submission by Promundo Brazil. Programme P. See the submission by Promundo United States. The Responsible, Engaged and Loving Fathers initiative. See http://irh.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/10/REAL_Fathers_Prevention_Science_2016.pdf. Submission by Promundo United States. See https://promundoglobal.org/programs/bolsa-familia-companion-program. See https://promundoglobal.org/2016/08/02/final-stages-economic-empowerment-project-promundotrains-hundreds-professionals-gender-transformative-methodologies. 9