Masculinity author, men’s performance coach & International Men’s Day campaigner comments on International Women’s Day 2023

Men’s performance coach and Rethinking Masculinity author Dan Stanley welcomes the support and worldwide recognition behind International Women’s Day (IWD) but criticises the same media, global organisations and governments who don’t offer the same backing and public recognition to International Men’s Day (IMD).

He explains: 

“International Men’s Day, held every November 19th, was founded in 1999. But despite existing for more than two decades now, there is simply nowhere near the same levels of support IWD receives. At a global level, the United Nations don’t recognise the initiative, and, in the UK, there is no Minister for Men at government level either. The message is clear: there is no voice for men.’’

He continues, “many companies don’t know how to champion men. There’s a prominent bias toward promoting greater equality but initiatives such as the Gender Pay Gap, have seemingly caused greater competition, not equality. Men are being marginalised in the workplace and it’s time we recognise greater equality will never be achieved without greater focus on all genders.’’

Stanley believes IWD is the ideal opportunity to examine why its male counterpart doesn’t garner the same level of support. He believes that because of the patriarchy and gender conditioning, men do not participate in supporting and championing their own needs.

He underlines the vast differences on social media. On the professional networking site LinkedIn there are 32,000 following the International Women’s Day hashtag while just 1,000 follow International Men’s Day. This theme is mirrored on other social media platforms. 

“I don’t want to anything away from recognising women but the enthusiasm for IWD in contrast with the lack of participation and support for IMD is concerning; it contributes to the underlying stigmas around men and modern day masculinity.’’

The married father of two takes aim at the cliches presented over the decades across the media about men. 

“Men and women complement each other but the media would rather create a state of division. The media representation of men is demonising, it’s all about the worst behaviour. Every year around IWD the commentators will trot out, ‘Isn’t everyday men’s day?’ This criticism of men is deemed perfectly acceptable – when it shouldn’t be. It is time to stop the anti-male narrative.”

Stanley runs an exclusively male coaching business, BetterMen, which has helped hundreds of men with their wellbeing. He went through his own midlife crisis at 35 and is why he launched his coaching business, founded the largest group of all male walkers in the UK, Men & Mountains and wrote his bestselling book.

“We need to redefine what it means to be successful as a man. The stereotyping has to end, being too manly, too stoical and shying away from these tough gender conversations is not a productive path forward.

“IMD wasn’t invented to compete with IWD. Far from it, instead it was created to promote positive male role models, focus on men’s health and wellbeing, improve gender relations and promote gender equality. The time has come to drop the gender politics and get behind IMD as we do IWD.’’

For more information about Dan Stanley visit https://www.better-men.uk