Gender Equality Policies Targeting Men: An Analysis of the Implementation of the Plan Corresponsables in Spain

The recognition of equality between women and men as a principle within the Spanish normative framework, together with the institutionalisation of public gender equality policies, has given rise to a range of policy initiatives in this field over the past four decades. Although there has been a consistent tendency to focus on the specific challenges faced by women, the relational dimension of gender has highlighted the need to promote change among men and in the social meanings of masculinity (Alonso, 2021b; Elizondo et al., 2022). Nevertheless, equality policies explicitly targeting men remain scarce, and few studies have examined their implementation. This paper, situated within the research project “MASPOL. Gender Equality Policies, Masculinity, Care and Violence: Analysis of Public Policies Addressed to Men in Spain”, focuses on the study of the Plan Corresponsables, promoted by the Government of Spain since 2021. It explores the implementation of initiatives within this policy aimed at fostering care-oriented masculinities among men. The analysis draws on qualitative research -including document analysis, twenty-two interviews and four triangular groups- which enables the identification of key factors influencing the implementation of this male-focused policy, as well as the extraction of lessons for further developments in this area. The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to contribute to the field of masculinity studies and, more specifically, to recent research on gender equality policies targeting men. On the other hand, it aims to enrich the emerging literature on the implementation of gender equality policies and to engage with debates concerning how to promote change in this field.