The Other Half of Gender

The vulnerabilities of men have received limited attention in development research and programming. In Liberia, men's lack of access to employment and land and their loss of traditional power and authority lay at the heart of the violence and conflict that led to the near destruction of the country. It is thus important that men's concerns, in addition to women's, be bought into focus in the development literature and practice. This book by the World Bank makes an important contribution to this end. Her Excellency Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President of Liberia The Other Half of Gender brings the gender and development debate full circle - from a much-needed focus on empowering women to a more comprehensive gender framework that considers gender as a system that affects both women and men. It draws on a slowly emerging realization that attaining the vision of gender equality will be difficult, if not impossible, without changing the ways in which masculinities are defined and acted upon.