Anew national campaign urging Barbadian men and boys to take a more active role in caregiving has been launched alongside landmark paternity leave legislation, as the government seeks to challenge entrenched gender norms and reshape family life across the island.
The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, in collaboration with the Bureau of Gender Affairs, launched the “Share the Care” national public relations campaign. Rolled out aboard one of the island’s modern electric buses, the initiative champions the recently enacted paternity leave legislation, and encourages men and boys to take an active role in family caregiving.
Addressing members of the media and invited guests, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Adrian Forde emphasised that fostering a progressive society requires a collective, nationwide shift in how caregiving is perceived. He noted that the initiative serves as a direct invitation for Barbadian men to re-examine their roles within both their immediate households and the wider community.
“Share and care. We must understand and appreciate that sharing is caring, but equally, if you juxtapose it, caring is sharing as well,” Forde said. “It is for us, especially our men, to be imbued with a sense and appreciation of caring—caring for their loved ones, caring for their extended family, caring for their neighborhoods, caring for their communities, and, by extension, caring for Barbados.”
The government’s legislative push for paternity leave is a critical step toward establishing equity in the home, he said. The policy ensures fathers are no longer excluded from the foundational moments of their children’s lives, shifting the concept from a distant aspiration into an everyday reality, he added.
The Family Leave Act was passed into law in October last year, extending maternity leave from 12 to 14 weeks for single births and 17 weeks for multiple births, and paving the way for fathers to have three weeks of paid paternity leave — a first for the country and the CARICOM region.
“We as a government have said from the inception that men must be an equal part of the gender-based conversation,” Forde said. “We have said that paternity leave must not only be a part of men’s imagination, it must all be part of the active conversation, and that is why we moved a place to have paternity leave for men so that they take care of their little babies and share that love, care, and attention that is desperately needed.”
The creative and strategic execution of the campaign is being managed by Visual Element. Ardith Burgess, the marketing team lead for the agency, explained that the core objective of the campaign is to break down long-standing stereotypes that have traditionally assigned caregiving duties solely to women.
As Barbados faces the realities of an ageing population, the need for balanced caregiving has become more urgent than ever, she said.
“The whole focus of this campaign was generated by the legislation that has been recently enacted,” Burgess said. “We’ve been pigeonholed by gender roles where people only think that caring for children, caring for the elderly, caring for someone who’s ill, is a responsibility of our womenfolk. We want to move beyond that where anybody can share care and don’t have a complex about it or assume that that is the responsibility of the females in the household.”
Regarding historical challenges with paternal absenteeism and the lack of positive male guidance in some communities, Burgess acknowledged that societal gaps exist, but emphasised that the campaign intends to provide a framework for long-term behavioural change.
She revealed that the Bureau of Gender Affairs intends to expand the programme’s reach beyond media advertisements and into the national school curriculum to instil these values in younger generations.
“We want to be able to have our men and boys more engaged in terms of not just waiting for a partner or significant other to have a baby, but to be involved as their parents age, as their aunts age, that everybody puts their hand to the floor, in essence, to give care,” Burgess explained.
“Our whole intent is to spread the word, have people more aware of the legislation, and we would like to take it further into the school system—not just secondary schools, primary schools—to let boys know that sharing care starts at a young age.”
The “Share the Care” campaign features highly visible mobile advertisements on the national transit system, complete with integrated QR codes that allow commuters to scan for educational resources and connect directly with the Bureau of Gender Affairs’ social media platforms.
The ministry and its corporate partners will also host community outreach pop-up events across the island, offering public information sessions alongside promotional giveaways to encourage community engagement.
The launch event brought together key policymakers and social development leaders, including Wayne Marshall, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of People Empowerment; William Warner, Director of the Bureau of Gender Affairs; Nicole Daniel, Social Project Development Manager from One Family; and Kim Bobb-Waithe, Acting Director of the National Wellbeing and HIV Commission.
