It is a rare spectacle in Bogota.

Three women in fluorescent exercise gear stop in their tracks and gawp in surprise. A young mother pushing her newborn in a buggy pulls out her phone and snaps a picture. An elderly man with a bushy mustache pauses to wipe his glasses.

What has grabbed their attention is the sight of a dozen men huddled next to a van in the bright morning sun attempting, with varying degrees of success, to put diapers onto baby dolls. Most are middle-aged adults, but there are a few retirees and one teenager giving it a try.

“That’s not bad for your first try,” says Omar Jimenez, a teacher and trained psychologist, as he inspects a doll presented to him by one of the men in training. “But you could have wrapped the diaper a bit tighter. And it’s a bit wonky. You don’t want the fluids getting out!”

The trainee, Sergio Rivera, nods with a tinge of disappointment. But much like the other men attending this pop-up session in southern Bogota, the 26-year-old is himself a work in progress.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air to learn this,” says Rivera, who has autism and is cared for by his mother. His parents divorced when he was still very young, leaving his mother to raise him and his older brother alone. “I was never taught how to do it as a boy.”

On this warm December day, the men have just 30-minute “taster” slots to learn the basics like using toys to play with children and how to braid the hair of a partner, but the session is part of the wider Escuela de Hombres al Cuidado program, or “care school for men.”

Since 2021, the radical, city-run project has been teaching men across Colombia’s sprawling capital how to be better husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, and any other societally-defined masculine role.


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The Colombian city sending men to school to learn how to care
By Peter Yeung for CNN

Editor’s note: This story is part of ‘The Great Illusion,’ a series by CNN’s As Equals all about work: investigating which industries are most harmful for women workers, revealing the true cost of care work, and exploring how it can all be fixed. For information about how CNN As Equals is funded and more, check out our FAQs.

Bogota, Colombia —
It is a rare spectacle in Bogota.

Three women in fluorescent exercise gear stop in their tracks and gawp in surprise. A young mother pushing her newborn in a buggy pulls out her phone and snaps a picture. An elderly man with a bushy mustache pauses to wipe his glasses.

What has grabbed their attention is the sight of a dozen men huddled next to a van in the bright morning sun attempting, with varying degrees of success, to put diapers onto baby dolls. Most are middle-aged adults, but there are a few retirees and one teenager giving it a try.

“That’s not bad for your first try,” says Omar Jimenez, a teacher and trained psychologist, as he inspects a doll presented to him by one of the men in training. “But you could have wrapped the diaper a bit tighter. And it’s a bit wonky. You don’t want the fluids getting out!”

The trainee, Sergio Rivera, nods with a tinge of disappointment. But much like the other men attending this pop-up session in southern Bogota, the 26-year-old is himself a work in progress.

“It’s like a breath of fresh air to learn this,” says Rivera, who has autism and is cared for by his mother. His parents divorced when he was still very young, leaving his mother to raise him and his older brother alone. “I was never taught how to do it as a boy.”

On this warm December day, the men have just 30-minute “taster” slots to learn the basics like using toys to play with children and how to braid the hair of a partner, but the session is part of the wider Escuela de Hombres al Cuidado program, or “care school for men.”

Since 2021, the radical, city-run project has been teaching men across Colombia’s sprawling capital how to be better husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, and any other societally-defined masculine role.


Teacher Omar Jimenez Vega observes a man try to change a diaper at a pop-up session run by the Care school for men. Peter Yeung for CNN

The city’s authorities believe the initiative will go some way to tackling the country’s entrenched machismo culture, or male chauvinism, and by extension encourage men to contribute their fair share of caregiving and domestic work, which they say is at the root of much of the country’s gender inequality.

“My mother worked so hard bringing me up and providing for me,” says Rivera, who came across the event by chance walking along the street. “But it shouldn’t just be left for women to do. Us men have to play our part.”

Research by Bogota City Hall, shared exclusively with CNN, shows that the initiative may already be having some impact. A survey from late 2023 suggests more men and women in Bogota say that they distribute household work equally than in 2021. There have also been changes in beliefs around gender roles and masculinity, aided by men like Jimenez.


https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/asequals/teaching-men-caring-skills-colombia-as-equals-intl-cmd/

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chicfarmer:
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I know say women go like this one

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Cold heart men