Activism & Politics

The Working with Men and Boys for Social Justice Assessment Tool is a new tool for assessing community programs for men and boys. It aims to provide leaders, designers and facilitators of programs or initiatives for men and boys the opportunity to review, reflect on and strengthen principles of gender and social justice. The Tool comprises key aspects that support positive social change in programs designed for men and boys.

One increasingly visible expression of alternative masculinities around the globe is men’s involvement in efforts to prevent men’s violence against women. Men who take part in such efforts, for example, as activists or educators, take up projects of personal change as well as wider social change. They seek to be “the change they wish to see in the world,” working to undermine their own gender privilege and to act in gender-equitable and nonviolent ways. This chapter focuses on such men.

It’s a couple of days since the #MenChallengingSexism conference in Cardiff and we’re so pleased with the level of engagement by the men who attended over the weekend, as well as the support and encouragement of feminist organisations, individual women and our amazing guest speakers Maryam Namazie and Vaishnavi Sundar.

Working Together with Men is an innovative violence prevention project based on community engagement and mobilisation. The project aims to contribute to the prevention of violence against women by engaging men to develop and implement primary prevention strategies in their local communities.

On 22 and 23 October 2022, Male Allies Challenging Sexism (MACS) is hosting what it believes to be the first face-to-face pro-feminist men’s conference in the UK for 30 years. The event in Cardiff will feature an international line-up of pro-feminist speakers, and all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to women’s organisations.

Why are women always tasked with ending men’s violence? Why are women both burdened with suffering under it and with solving it? Why do we never ask men to change their behaviour or to step up to counter misogyny and harm? How Men Can Help: A Guide To Undoing Harm and Being A Better Ally, by award-winning journalist and campaigner Sophie Gallagher provides the much-needed answers to these urgent questions.

Men have a vital role to play in contributing to the prevention and reduction of sexual harassment, in workplaces and elsewhere. Although men’s involvement is often constrained by poor understanding of sexual harassment and barriers preventing their advocacy, there are effective ways to invite them in to the work of sexual harassment prevention, and practical actions men can take to make change.

I’ve happily worn my pro-feminist politics like a badge for nearly twenty years. I joined an anti-sexist men’s group at age 20, did Women’s and Gender Studies at university and completed a PhD in Gender and Sexuality Studies. I founded the pro-feminist magazine XY and ran it for seven years before turning it into a major website. I continue to research issues of men, masculinity and sexuality, and I’m involved in activism and education particularly on men’s violence against women.

Confronting and ending oppression against marginalised and minoritised peoples is at the heart of social justice-oriented social work practice. Developing a critical understanding of power and oppression, and enacting social change aimed at challenging structural factors that contribute to oppression are integral to the core mandates of social work profession (International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2014). Different ways of challenging oppression are therefore of significant interest to social workers.