Churches have a role to play in helping men become better partners
Patriarchy has been the dominant influence in shaping men and oppressing women, a workshop sponsored by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) has concluded.
Meeting in Blantyre, Malawi, from 13 to 19 September, 35 men and women from Africa, Asia and Caribbean stated in a report that patriarchy is also a critical theological issue for the church to confront.
"Churches have been complicit in gender disparity, discrimination and violence because they have failed to engage patriarchy critically," they said in the report on the workshop "In Partnership for Gender Justice: Towards Transformative Masculinities."
"Patriarchy has pervaded all spheres of life from culture to social organization, political and economic systems, institutions, theories and structures. This reality has resulted in the oppression of women and also large numbers of men in all spheres of life.
The workshop was organized as part of the ongoing gender justice work of WARC and as part of WCC's preparation for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011. Its aim was to hold a conversation between men and women in the context of the call for men to be partners with women in the fight against gender disparity, discrimination and violence.
The report states that the workshop marks a shift from an exclusive look at women's empowerment towards a discourse on partnership between women and men.
"This workshop affirmed the importance of involving men's perspective in addressing issues of gender disparity that sometimes finds expression in violence against women," said Fulata Moyo, WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society.
WCC work on women in church and society
