TrueChild has increasingly been interfacing with and starring partnerships with some of the groups doing work on reproductive health in the international community: EngenderHealth, MenEngage, International Center for Research on Women, Population Council, Promundo. If these aren't familiar names, don't be surprised -- few of us on the domestic side have heard of them. But they are doing groundbreaking work on pushing the gender analysis in a wide variety of countries and environments.
In locales as disparate as South Africa. Brazil, and India, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like these are doing what the US has so far failed to do: showing that when you teach boys and men to think critically about masculinity, you get better reproductive health outcomes than if you don't.
We like to think of the US as a leader in repro health. But this is one of those areas that is the exception. Almost no policies or programs directed at improving reproductive health outcomes among young people -- particularly in at-risk communities -- address issues of masculinity and femininity. Only 2 of the 26
Evidence-based programs (EVPs) listed by the CDC have even a glancing analysis of gender, and
Emerging Answers -- practically the bible of teen pregnancy prevention -- only mentions masculinity in footnote #259.
This is a place where the US. is definitely falling behind our international partners. We need to take a page from their book. TrueChild is dedicated to doing so.
