In Egypt, Sowing Seeds of Gender Equality

Focused on the idea of honor and honor killings, activist Khalida Brohi started a program that provides rural women in Pakistan career skills and an income in order to fight the pervasive cultural attitudes about women's education. Brohi has been working for this cause for over a decade now and has done a number of different initiatives along the way. In this episode she shares some of her insights from her work, such as working with the women themselves to change social attitudes rather than the men, or broaching the topic for both men and women using the language of Islam.

Using play-based learning and positive communication lessons, an organization called Right to Play helps school children in Pakistan act less violently toward their peers. The program, which is now replicated in 18 countries around the world, aims to reduce gender-based violence and stereotyping in the classroom.

Criança Feliz (Happy Child), is a parent-coaching program that was launched in Brazil in 2017 to help parents and children build healthier relationships. The program works by sending skilled social workers to the most financially disadvantaged regions of Brazil to help parents learn the importance of play, emotional interaction and well-being, and how to stimulate intellectual development through interactive activities. The program has already reached 300,000 families.

An all-girls football team is challenging gender stereotypes and empowering their teenage players in the process. An international NGO named Magic Bus teamed up with a Mumbai-based women's collective named Parcham to find girls and parents willing to participate. After a slow start, the group now has a healthy number of players who are also both Muslim and Hindu. The process of becoming confident taking up public space and the fight to claim their spot back from the boys have given the girls more confidence, and parents are now highly supportive of their daughters.

The Canadian federal government has identified bullying as a national problem. Roots of Empathy, based in Toronto, encourages empathy in elementary kids by having them interact with babies.

Mothers and Sons is a six-week domestic-violence prevention program for boys 6-8 years old and their mothers. Unlike programs aimed at older youth and men, mothers sign up for this because they want their sons to grow up with healthy, respectful, non-violent attitudes toward women. While mothers meet with social workers to discuss parenting skills, boys meet with a male psychologist to learn good ways to handle their emotions and self-expression. Demand for the program has been strong among area mothers, who have given it positive reviews after they completed it.

Private dinners for only men to discuss notions of feminism and toxic masculinity have been picking up in interest across Sweden. What started in earnest following a string of assaults against women in 2016 has now become more commonplace after the #MeToo movement. Male participants testify to how comforting it is to be able to talk these issues out amongst men and figure out the best ways to act with people that they don't know as well as their own group of friends. The program now has served thousands of men across Sweden and is also publishing online guides for anyone to set up similar conversations.

A program launched by the Equal Community Foundation (ECF) in 2011 called Action for Equality (AFE) educates more than 5,000 teenage boys in Pune, India about violence against women. They spend 43 weeks learning curriculum designed to help them spot gender-based violence, how to intervene and be a model for change, and how to disrupt gender norms. The program is especially effective, because it is coordinated by young men in their 20s whom the teenage boys look up to. About 80% of participants graduate, and many families testify to their son/brother/nephew's changed behavior.

Enrolling parents in simple, scalable ways can improve early child learning outcomes. Building on a model used in the US state of California, firms in the UK are developing an SMS-based curriculum geared toward parents of children entering kindergarten. The method involves sending parents text messages that explain short, easy tasks that both instruct and motivate children, encouraging positive cognitive and behavioral development.

In this excerpt from Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt’s book, Biased, the author details the role surveillance and apps like Nextdoor play in perpetuating and disrupting discriminatory housing policies, racism, and segregation in the United States. Furthermore, it details how online communities can be spaces for meaningful discussions on race and racism in America.