International Men's Day 2023

Every man, from childhood on, knows the date March 8 – International Women’s Day. It is a worldwide annual event celebrating women and their achievements. In the 1960s, however, many men started to endeavour to create the men equivalent of this observance. This is how International Men’s Day started to be observed.

Not only male workers have noticed the need to establish an equivalent of Women’s Day. Various American journalists, for example John P. Harris, used to highlight this lack of balance between male and female workers in the Soviet system, calling it even an ‘unwarranted discrimination and rank injustice.’ Their media publications have encouraged men to seek justice and equal rights.

First attempts of creating a worldwide day of all men were aiming at observing it on February 23. The date, however, was also in the Soviet Union known as the Red Army and Navy Day. For this reason, some countries have decided to change the date of the International Men’s Day to November 19. An interesting fact is that the first country celebrating International Men’s Day on that date in 1999 was Trinidad and Tobago. In the following years other countries have joined the celebration: Jamaica, Australia, India, China, United Kingdom and the United States. Soon, International Men’s Day became a global, annual observance.

The idea of the day is to promote positive role models of all men and boys around the world, and the good aspects of their actions. What is important, the day is not meant to be a competition against Women’s Day. It is a great occasion to focus on positive contributions to different areas of life of all men, not only the famous ones. The observance also aims at highlighting discrimination against men, focusing on their health, and in general creating a better world where all genders are equal. It is also an opportunity for everybody to appreciate men and boys around them and all the positive value they bring into the world.

The official website of International Men’s Day provides ideas and suggestions on how to do that. Since 1999 different methods have been used to celebrate the day. They include: public seminars, forums, festivals, conferences, school activities, radio and TV programmes, government observances as well as music concerts and art displays. Many people, however, simply post an info about the day in the social media using different hashtags, or organise their own events to participate in this global observance. They are allowed to use the official logo of International Men’s Day or download posters from the official website. It is also possible to print the Certificate of Appreciation and hand it to the valuable men from the local community. At an individual or family level it is also a great idea to spend some time with men or boys that we love and appreciate, write a letter to them or give them some small gift.

Did you know?

There is one more event observed in November and connected with International Men’s Day. It is called Movember and it annually encourages men around the world to grow moustaches during the month of November. Although it might seem funny, the idea of the observance has an honourable aim: it raises awareness of men’s health issues. Men on average die 4-5 years before women. They are twice as likely to get lung cancer or suffer from heart disease than them, and have a suicide rate 3 times higher than women. If we add to this different diseases, such as prostate cancer or testicular cancer, it is understandable that the issue of men’s health is worth highlighting. Movember, just as International Men’s Day, aims at doing that.