Gary Barker

Activist, Parent, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor

Gary Barker, PhD, (www.garytbarker.com and https://www.equimundo.org/about/ - gary-barker) is one of the world’s leading voices for healthy masculinities and for engaging men and boys as allies for gender equality. He is an author, researcher, and human rights activist. He founded and currently directs the influential organization, Equimundo, started in favelas of Rio de Janeiro in 1997 and now operating in more than 44 countries. Equimundo’s evidence-based programs, including Program H and Manhood 2.0, have been implemented by governments, U.N. agencies and social service agencies in more than 35 countries and are considered models in the field. Gary led the creation of the largest multi-country study on men, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), which has been administered in more than 40 countries in partnership with the U.N. He also led the creation of the international network of organizations working to promote men’s involvement in women’s equality, MenEngage, and the creation of MenCare, a global campaign to promote men’s involvement as fathers. For MenCare, he took the lead in drafting the State of the World’s Fathers reports (https://stateoftheworldsfathers.org/) which have been published in partnership with the Gates Foundation, the U.N. Foundation and key corporate brands like Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. 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 currently lives in Washington, DC with his binational family. He is the author of 4 novels published in Europe and the US by World Editions.

Gender Equaity, Masculinities, Social justice, Violence prevention