Michael Flood

11 Mar 2024

Men in workplaces can make influential contributions to progress towards gender equality. Most men support principles of fairness and equity in workplaces and most welcome women’s participation in STEM. Despite this, few men so far have actively supported efforts to increase women’s participation. However, male allyship is vital if we are to make progress.

02 Feb 2024

(Speech by Professor Michael Flood at the launch of The Man Box 2024.)

Let’s think about that model of traditional masculinity, toxic masculinity, dominant masculinity, whatever we want to call it. That version of manhood based on being tough, aggressive, stoic, homophobic, and dominant over women.

Good news and bad news

First, there’s some good news. Most men don’t personally endorse this model of manhood. Most men believe that:

13 Nov 2023

In engaging men and boys in preventing domestic and sexual violence, what do we need? In the following, I identify key ways forward, addressing both our overall approach in violence prevention and particular prevention strategies. I focus on primary prevention – on efforts to prevent the initial perpetration of domestic, family and sexual violence.

16 Oct 2023

Men and masculinities are now on the public agenda. There is growing attention in Ireland and around the world to the gendered attitudes, practices, and relations associated with men and boys and their implications for health, violence and gender inequality. There are various signs of this: intensified public debate over codes of masculinity, growing attention to men and masculinities in policy and programming, increasing scholarship on the links between masculinities and various social issues, and men’s activism and advocacy.

20 Sep 2023

An ally is a member of a privileged group who acts to challenge or dismantle that same privilege. Ally politics involves members of privileged groups taking action to undermine that same privilege: white people challenging racism, heterosexual people challenging heterosexism and homophobia, and of course, men challenging sexism.

Key elements of male allyship therefore include the following.

10 Sep 2023

There is growing interest in using online media among men and boys to prevent men’s violence against women and girls, prompted by two insights. First, such media may be effective ways to reach and educate large numbers of boys and men. Organisations such as schools and universities involved in violence prevention education are turning increasingly to online media as platforms for education on violence, gender, and healthy relationships, using these to deliver curricula to large cohorts of students and others.

24 Aug 2023

Men’s rights advocates (MRAs) are deeply hostile to feminism and feminists. And in turn, MRAs are deeply hostile to pro-feminist men or male feminists.

But *how* MRAs criticise and attack male feminists betrays their own low opinions of men and their hypocrisy.

This account comes from my experience of being a visible pro-feminist male advocate, on Twitter and elsewhere, and noticing the kinds of attacks that anti-feminist men or MRAs direct at me and other pro-feminist men.

16 May 2023

The lives of men and boys are on the agenda in Australia. There is a historically unprecedented level of attention to men and masculinities - in popular debate, media commentary, community programs, and policy

15 Apr 2023

For men who begin to take action in their everyday lives to end violence against women, there are some common mistakes to avoid.

14 Apr 2023

There are growing efforts to engage men and boys in preventing men’s violence against women in the Asia Pacific.