About EMiNC

The Engaging Men in Nurturing Care (EMiNC) initiative is a multiyear project dedicated to promoting gender equity in caregiving. EMiNC seeks to create a nurturing environment where children thrive by advocating for equal respect and shared responsibilities among parents. Engaging men in caregiving benefits children, strengthens family bonds, supports mothers, and contributes positively to society and the economy. Through evidence building, strategic partnerships, and community engagement, EMiNC aims to influence parental leave policies that support gender-balanced caregiving. The initiative also trains early childhood practitioners in inclusive practices ensuring men play an active role in caregiving. EMiNC envisions children growing up in a society where caregiving is a shared, valued, and respected responsibility for all.

What we do

EMiNC focuses on achieving key outcomes to advance gender equity in caregiving across Europe:

• Influence Policy: Advocate for equal, paid, and non-transferable paternal leave at the national and EU levels, ensuring fathers can actively engage in their children's early development.
• Transform Early Childhood Practices: Implement gender-transformative programs in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, targeting early childhood professionals and fathers to increase fathers' engagement in caregiving.
• Build Capacity in Early Childhood Workforce: Integrate men and father engagement and shared parenting into the training curriculum for early childhood professionals in- and pre- service, challenging stereotypes and promoting gender-transformative practices.
• Engage Employers: Partner with employers to create workplace environments that support paternity leave, reinforcing shared caregiving responsibilities.
• Foster Mindset Shift: Encourage a societal shift towards recognizing and valuing men’s roles in caregiving, contributing to more balanced family dynamics and improved outcomes for children.

EMiNC operates in three cities across Italy, Spain, and Portugal - in Naples, Barcelona, and Coimbra respectively -leveraging expertise from multiple fields The program focuses on changing everyday practices in early childhood services and increasing fathers’ engagement in daily caregiving activities. Cross-sectoral capacity building and support ensure coherent and sustainable practices across professionals working with young children and families.

Why we do it

Early engagement of fathers in caregiving, leads to long-term benefits such as improved child development, better well-being of family members and healthy family environments. However, gender inequality in caregiving remains a challenge across Europe. Deep-rooted stereotypes assign most caregiving responsibilities to women, widening gender gaps in employment and income. Men's participation in caregiving is often limited by societal expectations and insufficient supportive policies, such as inadequate paternal leave. Despite EU efforts, violence against women and children continues, emphasizing the need for stronger strategies.

A collective effort from parents, educators, businesses, media, and governments is essential to challenge these stereotypes, promote gender equality in caregiving, and implement policies that encourage men’s active involvement in caregiving roles, both at home and professionally. Starting early and maintaining engagement in fatherhood can significantly contribute to breaking down these barriers and fostering a more equitable society. The EMiNC project addresses these issues by advocating for gender-balanced policies and effective implementation of programs across Europe.

How we do it

EMiNC brings together expertise from multiple fields, such as gender equality, masculinities, fatherhood, early childhood development, parenting programs, human and child’s rights, and the know-how on effective programming, policy influencing and system change:

• Top-down Advocacy: Influence EU-level policies to drive national change, advocating for equal, paid, and non-transferable paternal leave stressing the importance of strengthening the capacity across programs to encourage and stimulate fathers/men participation in nurturing care
• Bottom-up Action: Build alliances at the city and country levels to shift narratives and practices through gender-transformative programs targeting early childhood workers and fathers in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
• Curriculum Integration: Introduce gender equality into pre- and in-service training for early childhood professionals across sectors to challenge stereotypes and promote men and father engagement in caregiving and shared parenting.
• Narrative Building: Promote positive masculinities and fatherhood. EMiNC builds strong narratives on the importance of engaged fatherhood and gender equity to drive societal change.
• Data-driven Approach: Collect evidence and data to inform strategies and adapt them for maximum sustainable impact.

Who we are

EMiNC is a partnership of the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) with the Centro per la Salute del Bambino - Centre for Child Health (CSB) in Italy, Observatory of Masculinities – Center of Social Studies (CES) in Portugal, and CONEXUS and the Barcelona City Council, Office for Feminism and LGBTI Affairs in Spain. Supported by the OAK Foundation, EMiNC launched in February 2023 as a three-year initiative.

Our value proposition

While many programs across Europe engage fathers in caregiving, EMiNC is unique in simultaneously influencing EU-level policy and driving changes in city-level practices. By catalyzing policy discourse and implementing transformative programs, EMiNC promotes positive masculinities, fatherhood, and gender equity, with a strong data-gathering component to inform future scale-up of successful policies and programs