The State of Italian Boys Report
An overwhelming body of research finds that boys encounter a set of gender norms that compromise their humanity and well-being, and contribute to perpetuating gender inequality.
This report, The State of Italian Boys: Understanding and Transforming Gender Norms in the Lives of Italian Boys, serves as foundational research to understand the state of boyhood in the country, analyzing existing evidence as well as collecting primary data to explore the development of gender roles in childhood and develop action-focused recommendations to promote gender equality beginning at an early age.
This study aimed to analyze how gender roles influence boys between the ages of 4 and 13 in Italy, providing empirical evidence and making recommendations to have an impact on the programmatic development of initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality. The study’s specific objectives included:
- Analyze how social norms related to gender equality are transmitted in the family environment;
- Find out how social norms related to gender equality are transmitted in the educational environment;
- Analyze how learning egalitarian norms around gender influences the wellbeing and development of children;
- Learn the challenges and opportunities in learning about egalitarian social norms around gender through the involvement of families and formal and non-formal education;
- Analyze approaches, tools, and content suitable for gender-transformative education that are applicable to specific programs and advocacy demands and that can be applied to early socialization contexts.