An international EU project „Men equal, men different” is implemented by Ministry for Children and Family Affairs of Republic of Latvia in partnership with the Danish Research Centre on Gender Equality, the National information centre for women and families’ rights in France, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in Bulgaria, the Gender Project for Bulgaria Foundation and the Coalition for Gender Equality in Latvia. Project is co-financed by European Union.

In the whole Europe situation that men takes significantly less part in house holding and child care than women is typical. For example, Statistical data of Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia shows the big difference between time, which men and women is spending in house holding and family care. Men spend 12:06 hours in a week but women 21:52 in a week. The ratio of men taking child care leaves is very low. The wages of men is 22,7% higher than women wages.

In Denmark the parental leave scheme was last changed in 2002. The changes prolonged the maximum period of leave and increased the flexibility (i.e. part time-leave), but abolished two weeks paternity leave. According to the last figures from the statistics of Denmark the „average woman” goes on leave for 278 days (39,7 weeks) while the „average man” only has 25 days (3,6 weeks) of paternity leave.

A time-use-survey in Denmark from 2003 showed that men and women in average use 7¾ hours on work – including work on the labour market as well as domestic work. Out of these hours women use half of their time (3¾ hours) on domestic cores while men only uses ¹/3  of their working time on household work (i.e. 2½ hours).

Taking into account above mentioned experts from four very different European countries decided to join the efforts in this international project in order to explore and analyse the main obstacles in different social, cultural and economic environments, look at best practice in different areas of life, to avoid repetition of gender stereotypes in society, improve possibilities to reconcile the work and private life and promote the role of fathers in family life.

Project „Men Equal Men Different” is co-financed by European Commission Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG.

Project is running from November, 2005 until December, 2006.

The target audience of the project is young fathers and fathers to-be, families with children, as well as employers and employees.

Project objectives are achieved through following activities and results:

Objective 1 : Indicating of the main obstacles impeding active fatherhood and promote male involvement in the family life, child care

- Survey on main obstacles impeding active fatherhood and reconciliation of work and private life.
- Analysis of public environment and public policies in each partner country identifying economic, institutional, social barriers to active fatherhood.
- Public survey of employers looking at main obstacles hampering employers to promote active fatherhood and to identify the examples of good practice.

Survey, analysis and public survey are carried out in each partner country, on basis of common methodology. Activities are coordinated by Danish Research Centre on Gender Equality.

Objective 2 : Development of good practice in the companies for reconciliation of the work and family life

- Elaborated recommendations to improve public environment, on basis of analysis of public environment identifying economic, institutional, social barriers to active fatherhood.
- Elaborated guidelines and practical recommendations for employers on practical ways to promote active fatherhood (Good practice guide).
- Elaborated informative materials for employees on best practices in each partner countries for reconciliation of the work and family life and motivating to develop good initiatives.

Objective 3 : Changing of the gender stereotypes in society and educating about possibilities of men involvement in the family life

- Organized public campaign in media about gender roles and possibilities encouraging men actively participate in family life and child care.
- Organized pilot-competition for the state and private companies for Family friendly company.
- Organized an interactive forum on gender roles.
- Produced a documentary movie on fathers’ role in the contemporary family.
- Organized the National award on promotion of active fatherhood (e.g. awarding mass media, employers, individuals etc.).

An international conference will be organized as the project closing event in Riga on December 7 2006, introducing project results and implemented activities.