Department for Work and Pensions: International Men's Day

(asked on 24th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department took to mark International Men's Day on 19 November 2020.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 30th November 2020

In the department (DWP), every year, International Men’s Day (IMD) offers an opportunity to highlight some key issues and policies that are available to support men. Our policies range from our flexible working hours, the introduction of shared parental leave, which allows men to take time away from the workplace and bond with their new children, benefitting that crucial long-term relationship for both parent and child, to our support for Domestic Abuse and Mental Health through our community of 1600+ Mental Health First Aiders.

In DWP we have a series of national events taking place over the week to mark IMD. The DWP’s Director General Gender Champion opened an IMD session which included male senior leaders talking about their own personal journey.

DWP have partnered with The Good Lad Initiative (GLI), following the success of last year’s events. The specific events cover Thinking about Masculinities and Workplace Cultures and Allyship and Inclusion - men reflecting on their own workplace cultures and positions as leaders and communication skills needed to be effective and compassionate bystanders and to generate debate around the question

DWP has also updated its Gender and Wellbeing pages with support available to colleagues and a number of blogs have been published by colleagues of all genders with titles ranging from “Men who inspire me”, “how talking has helped me” to men’s mental health.

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