Broadening the Perspective of Fatherhood through an International Lens w/ Gary Barker

Gary Barker, PhD, has been a global voice in engaging men and boys in advancing gender equality, gender justice and positive masculinities for three decades. He is the CEO and co-founder of Equimundo Center for Masculinities and Social Justice (formerly Promundo-US), a major contributor to international activism on male allyship in gender equality. He was the first Executive Director of Instituto Promundo in Brazil and led its pioneering work on healthy masculinities. 

He is co-founder of MenCare, a global campaign in more than 50 countries to promote men’s involvement as caregivers, and co-founder of MenEngage, a global alliance of more than 700 NGOs. He co-created the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), the largest survey of men’s attitudes and behaviors related to violence, fatherhood, and gender equality. 

He leads Equimundo’s State of the World’s Fathers reports, which has become a major advocacy platform for the global care economy. He has coordinated Equimundo’s partnerships in conflict-affected settings including work on community-based trauma support and restorative justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Balkans, the US and Brazil. He advises the UN, the World Bank, national governments, international foundations and corporations on strategies to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality. In 2017 he was named by Apolitical as one of the 20 most influential people in gender policy worldwide. He is an Ashoka Fellow and received the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices for his work to engage men for gender equality. He holds a PhD in Developmental Psychology and a Research Affiliate position at the Center for Social Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal. He lived nearly 20 years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.