Bono is to become the first man to be awarded a prize at Glamour’s Woman of the Year awards.
The singer is being acknowledged for his campaign organisation One and their “Poverty is Sexist” movement which highlights the issues women and girls in extreme poverty around the world have to deal with.
The U2 frontman will be honoured at Glamour’s award ceremony in Los Angeles later this month, the magazine announced.
Cindi Leive, Glamour’s editor-in-chief said: “We’ve talked for years about whether to honour a man at Women of the Year and we’ve always kind of put the kibosh on it. You know, men get a lot of awards and aren’t exactly hurting in the celebration and honors department.
“But it started to seem that that might be an outdated way of looking at things, and there are so many men who really are doing wonderful things for women these days. Some men get it and Bono is one of those guys,” Leive added.
Roughly 62 million girls are denied a right to education around the world, according to a One report, and half a billion women can’t read.
In a letter to world leaders, Bono called it an outrage that girls account for 74 percent of all new HIV infections among adolescents in Africa.
“The idea that a man who could select any cause in the world to call his own, or no cause at all, is choosing to work, and not just for one night or at a special event, but consistently — day after day and month after month — on behalf of women is incredibly cool and absolutely deserves applause,” Leive said, noting Bono’s AIDS campaign Red.
Leive revealed upon hearing of the award, Bono “turned to his wife and broke the news and she told him, eh, ‘I think you still have some work to do’.”
Bono said in a statement Tuesday via Glamour that the battle for gender equality won’t be won unless men step up and lead alongside women.
“We’re largely responsible for the problem, so we have to be involved in the solutions,” he said.
Among Glamour’s other 2016 award winners are fashion designer Miuccia Prada, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Isis kidnap survivor Nadia Murad, Black Lives Matter activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, and model and body activist Ashley Graham.
