HeForShe Turkey invited all men to share responsibilities at home by saying: “Time to stand up for equality!”
Date: 30 June 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people across the world confined themselves to their homes. Gender inequalities, particularly for women in the home, are becoming increasingly apparent when it comes to housework and caring for children.
Before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, women were doing three times as much unpaid care and domestic work compared to men globally. [1] In Turkey, this figure jumped to almost five times as much where women were spending 4.3 hours doing unpaid care and housework, while men were spending only 0.9 hours [2]. According to the Rapid Gender Assessment of COVID-19 implications in Turkey, 35.2 per cent of women reported their partnershelped them more with the household responsibilities and care of the family since the spread of COVID-19. On the contrary, 13 per cent of women said their partners did not help them more and 51.8 per cent reported that they are not married or do not have a partner to help them. Moreover, 23.6 per cent of the female respondents said that their daughters were helping them more while 15.2 per cent reported that their sons were helping them more with the household responsibilities after Covid-19. The study also revealed that 40.7 per cent of the surveyed men do not cook and serve meals and 25.5% do not take part in cleaning and maintaining the house and Covid-19 did not change their engagement. [3]
The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed many health services and brought with it self-isolation measures, school closures and distance learning, as well as a greater burden of care to support older people and ill family members. This situation has likely deepened already existing gender inequalities in the division of labor, placing a disproportionate burden on women and girls, with potential long-term implications for their health, wellbeing, educational opportunities, and economic empowerment.
The HeForShe solidarity movement’s global #HeForSheAtHome campaign has been localized and launched in Turkey as the #EvdeHeForShe campaign. The campaign aims to highlight the increased domestic and care burden that women now face and to encourage men to do their equal share.
From March, the campaign invited men to do an equal amount of domestic and care work and to share their stories on social media to inspire other men and boys to do the same. Including celebrities and athletes, many people shared messages about positive masculinity on social media. The campaign raised awareness about gender inequalities, particularly now with COVID 19.
By providing useful tools and tips, the HeForShe campaign aimed to encourage and inform individuals by redefining how domestic and care work is perceived, sharing new facts, and disseminating messages to dispel gender stereotypes.
Including celebrities, athletes, and civil society organizations, men and boys of different ages participated in the #EvdeHeForShe campaign. Different visuals focused on themes such as fatherhood, cleaning the house, cooking, and spending quality time with household members. The UN Turkey Officer-in-Charge Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez supported the campaign and invited other men to participate. Audiences also enjoyed the HeForShe Turkey’s Instagram filter, developed by a young university student. Meanwhile, Sinem Aydın, the HeForShe Coordinator, interviewed Hasan Deniz, Director of Fatherhood Studies from AÇEV (Mother Child Education Foundation) on Instagram Live about the father’s role in achieving gender equality, especially during the pandemic.
The #EvdeHeForShe campaign has reached more than 450,000 people through HeForShe Turkey social media channels. It was also covered in online and offline media channels including leading newspapers and magazines in the country.
Join us and support HeForShe to challenge stereotypical gender roles and use your voice to highlight positive male models by sharing the house and care work equally, not just during the pandemic but always. Equality starts with you, if you share.
[1] ILO, “Care Work and Care Jobs”, 2018. https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_633135/lang--en/index.htm
[2] TÜİK, Toplumsal Cinsiyet İstatistikleri, 2019. https://biruni.tuik.gov.tr/yayin/views/visitorPages/index.zul
[3]UN Women, The economic and social impact of COVID-19 on women and men: Rapid gender assessment of COVID-19 implications in Turkey, 2020.https://eca.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/06/the-impact-of-covid19-on-women-and-men-rapid-gender-assessment-of-covid19-implications-in-turkey