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May 24, 2019

Michael Kaufman's newest book, The Time Has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution, is a stirring call for men to step up for women's rights, as well as a poignant analysis of what on earth is going on with gender equality today. 

Michael has been a prominent figure in promoting social justice and women’s rights for decades. He sits with Ben in Toronto for a timely and insightful conversation about why men should do more, what they have to gain, and how to get it done.

About the Guest

Michael Kaufman, PhD, is a writer, advisor, and keynote speaker whose innovative approaches to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and transforming men's lives has taken him around the world over the past four decades. He has worked extensively with the United Nations and with governments, non-governmental organizations, corporations, trade unions, and universities.

Michael is also the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. He is a senior fellow at Promundo in Washington DC and co-writer of the State of the Worlds' Fathers Report.

He is a member of France's G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. In 2017 he was awarded Canada's Meritorious Service Cross.

His work in the UN system, including with UN WOMEN, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, IFAD, and UNESCO has taken him to New York, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Katmandu, Ankara, Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Delhi. He has worked with numerous NGOs including OXFAM, International Red Cross, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, as well as with governments on six continents. He wrote the training program on sexual harassment used by tens of thousands of staff at the United Nations.

His latest book is The Time Has Come. Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution. He is the author or editor of eight other books on gender issues, on democracy and development studies, and two novels, the award-winning, The Possibility of Dreaming on a Night Without Stars and the anti-war tale, The Afghan Vampires Book Club. His articles, which have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and journals around the world, have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Finnish, Estonian, Russian, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Hungarian, Turkish, and Arabic.

He has worked across Canada and the United States; in Europe (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, and Russia); Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Chile, Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador); Africa (Namibia, Kenya, South Africa): Asia and Australia (Japan, China, South Korea, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand.)

Michael previously taught at York University in Toronto where he was Deputy Director of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean. He lives in Toronto, Canada, is married, and has a grown daughter and son.

Learn more about Michael or follow him on Twitter (@GenderEQ).

The Quote of the Week

"Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance."
- Kofi Annan