Why mark International Men’s Day?

Why do men need a day set aside for men’s stuff? What’s the point of these themed days which pop up through the year? There’s even a National Pirates’ Day on September 19^th and National Hugging Day on January 21^st (a definite date to work from home!)

I don't hide the fact that as a professional speaker, I lead in my work on men's mental health, (whilst also talking about key wellbeing topics such as burnout and community building) and in the last two weeks, as we’ve started to approach International Men’s Day on November 19^th and my diary goes absolutely crazy, I've had two separate conversations, with two different people I know, neither conversation of which was prompted by me. On both occasions, both individuals were lamenting the poor response of their organisations towards Men's International Day and the message it sends to female and male colleagues.

The first conversation was with the wife of one of my podcast guests, who had challenged her organisation's decision to seek a speaker who specialised in tackling violence against women and girls, in order for her to lead the main International Men’s Day event, focussed entirely on women and girls (and men’s violence towards them).

The other conversation was with a dad whose son plays football with my son on Saturday mornings, and he was complaining to me on the touchline, that his organisation's attempt at honouring International Men’s Day, (they're a leading UK university), was one web page with some signposting links!

We can and should do better than this.

From the tragedy of Ireland’s suicide data, where 80% of people who die by suicide are men, to the homelessness data (over 60% of rough sleepers in Ireland are men) or the prison data ( 89% of people in prison are men).

Or the data around crime and violence, where 60% of victims of violence in Ireland are men and boys (but there is no official government strategy to tackle it) or the fact that within the education system, boys have fallen behind girls in every subject and across all age groups (with the exception of mathematics) and the wider impact of this decline.

On a positive note, Ireland was the first country in the world to adopt a National Men’s Health Policy to address gender differences in life expectancy and health inequalities.

It's clear that men are struggling and as with all these dates in the diary, marking November 19th with meaningful events, which bring men and women together to explore the issues, both compassionately and intelligently, is an opportunity to start sensible conversations and inspire action:

• It's possible to advocate for women and men at the same time. 
• Every pound invested in men's wellbeing is also a pound invested for the people who love those men (and vice versa).
• A step forward for men and boys, is not a step backwards for women. 
• If we want men to engage with wellbeing initiatives and DEI initiatives, then we need to think about our messaging to men and how we create truly ‘accessible’ events.

We owe it to men, their families, and society as a whole to make International Men’s Day more than a token gesture; it's a chance to foster genuine understanding, invest in wellbeing, and address the specific challenges men face with empathy and commitment.