This report examines how Australia can strengthen and better coordinate work with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence. It reports on a national consultation held in Melbourne on 21 May 2024, involving 50 stakeholders from violence prevention, early intervention, response, recovery, and men’s health and wellbeing sectors. The consultation focused on two aspects of prevention infrastructure: coordination, collaboration and quality assurance; and workforce and sector development.
Activism & Politics
From Reflection to Action is a practical, evidence-based toolkit that helps organisations, practitioners, researchers and policymakers design gender-transformative programmes that engage men and boys – first as participants, and then as accountable allies in advancing gender equality.
The ‘manosphere’ is a diverse ecosystem of anti-women and pro-sexist online communities, influencers, and platforms. There is growing public concern about its impacts, particularly in feeding sexism, violence, insecurity, and hostility among boys and young men. And there is growing policy attention to possible prevention and intervention strategies.
We talk about the manosphere as though it were some troublesome new arrival, born in the darker corners of the internet and carried into boys' lives through social media. I see it differently; while the technology may be new, much of the thinking has been with us for centuries.
Following another series of alleged killings of women across Australia, the country has once again found itself asking familiar questions. How many more women have to die before we act? What more should governments do? Why does this violence keep happening?
It is often easier to identify patriarchal structures in the institutions we oppose than the organisations we belong to. We challenge, critique and demand better from others but when similar patterns of concentrated power and decision making, rigid hierarchies and lack of accountability and transparency appear inside an organisation that campaigns against patriarchy, they can become surprisingly difficult to acknowledge and call it as it is.
There is a growing symphony of voices reminding us that violence and hate cannot be stopped with more violence and more hate. Cancel culture has taken a powerful hold on our society and we are seeing the damage of this perpetuation of harm. So, what other options do we have, and how can this inform efforts to engage and mobilize men?
Nearly one in two women has experienced domestic violence (DV) in her lifetime, yet accountability remains elusive: Nearly half of survivors never report their abuse to law enforcement, often out of fear of retaliation. Many minimize the harm or shield their abuser’s behavior, telling themselves, “That’s just how men are,” or “He didn’t mean it.”
From Reflection to Action is a practical, evidence-based toolkit that helps organisations, practitioners, researchers and policymakers design gender-transformative programmes that engage men and boys – first as participants, and then as accountable allies in advancing gender equality.
The manosphere contributes to violence against women by men both within and outside the manosphere. The manosphere is a diverse online ecosystem of anti-feminist and male supremacist communities, influencers, and platforms.