Violence

Meaningful engagement with men and boys is increasingly recognized as critical to gender equality and equity, necessary not only for women’s empowerment, but also for transforming the social and gender norms that reinforce patriarchy and inequality and harm both women and men. The primary challenge embedded in this work is how to engage men and boys effectively without instrumentalizing them as a pathway to women’s empowerment on the one hand, or marginalizing women and girls in gender equity work on the other.

This paper explores the essential principles required for the development of an effective violence prevention framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and boys, to reduce and prevent violence against women and children.

It is now widely accepted that strategies to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) must include work with men and boys. Much of the evidence relating to such strategies comes from the health sector. Ending VAWG, however, requires coordinated work across many sectors. The need for a multi-sectoral response to the challenge of ending VAWG has focused attention on the opportunities for and challenges of male engagement strategies outside of the health sector.

This working paper:

  • Reviews existing knowledge on child marriage and informal unions between girls and boys/men in the Global South;
  • Explores the attitudes of male family and community members on child marriage and the role of masculinity in shaping these attitudes; and
  • Surveys interventions currently working with men and boys to see what can be built upon more systematically in the future work on child marriage.

Please see below for the full report, in PDF.

In this short paper, I will outline a perspective on anti-pornography activism, provide a brief overview of tactics, and offer a few comments about tactics and actions. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on pornography. But as has been discussed throughout this conference, the distinctions between pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking are shallow and tenuous. There is more alike between these issues than there is different.

This short article details the initial findings from a 3-month conversation between 21 male activists who work to prevent violence against women. Using Participatory Action Research methodology, this research project investigates what men who do this work would like to learn from other men who do this work. To date, no research has been done that examines what it is that motivates and sustains men who work, as their primary effort, to prevent men’s violence against women.

Enough is enough! Not another obfuscating word from You Know Who that “it’s not time to talk about gun control.” No more deflections that “he was a twisted individual; it’s a mental health issue.” No more hemming and hawing from the Speaker of the House and his coterie of National Rifle Association lackeys. While 26 bodies—including an 18-month-old, a pregnant mother, and three of her five children—are prepared for burial in Sutherland Springs, Texas, there’s one common denominator in all of the shooters that we in the profeminist men’s movement are blue in the face from shouting from the rooftops for decades: They’re all men. And, many are domestic abusers.

What is sexual harassment? What are its character, causes, and consequences? Here are some key readings, particularly recent academic overviews.

The pieces are listed below, and downloadable in full text.

It’s time to listen to students. Across the country, teenagers have walked out of classes, stood in silence, and delivered stirring speeches calling out their elders for failing to prevent their schools from becoming shooting ranges for raging men. On Saturday, they’ll protest in Washington, DC, with adult allies among the throngs in the capitol and at hundreds of student-organized satellite rallies nationwide.

Q. Recently, there have been calls for education regarding sexual ethics. How do you conceptualise this? In terms of sexual consent?