Violence

ARC Gender Relations is a primary prevention of violence project on Bundjalung Country in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW.

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

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

Changing Contexts: A Framework for Engaging Male-Oriented Settings in Gender Equality and Violence Prevention – Practitioners’ Guide was developed by Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence (Canada). It involves non-programmatic approaches to engaging men to enhance gender equality and prevent violence against women. The approach is intended to work effectively “in the middle space between program-based interventions and policy-based approaches”.

Efforts to engage men and boys in preventing men’s violence against women are gaining momentum around the world. This has been prompted in part by a growing emphasis in the violence prevention field on primary prevention and the emergence of an ‘engaging men’ field focused on men’s roles in building gender equality.

This report informs Alberta’s next and exciting chapter of expanding work with men and boys to end violence and advance gender equality. It was written to support the Alberta Primary Prevention Framework Collaborative by providing clear and actionable strategies for Alberta’s anti-violence sector as well as the Government of Alberta.

We have organized the information into three evidence-informed sections.

The first section is the case for engaging men and boys along with foundational theories and approaches to help readers orient themselves in this work.

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.

Fathers have a vital role to play in preventing and reducing men’s violence against women and in building a non-violent future. Fathers can have a profound and positive impact on children, mothers, families, other fathers, and the wider community.

There are of course a wide range of ways in which men can contribute to ending violence against women, and a wide range of ways men can improve their own fathering. But here I focus on what fathers can do, as fathers, to prevent domestic and sexual violence.