Working with Boys and Men

How men can support gender equality is a topic that is rarely talked about. Over the last decade, I researched how men as senior leader and middle managers support gender equality in the work context. My book ‘Men Stepping Forward – Leading Your Organisation on the Path to Inclusion’ shows some practical steps men can take to become change agents for gender equality.

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.

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.

Apart from what it means in their own lives, men’s exposure to violence, trauma and adversity are key risk factors for men’s self-inflicted harm and their use of violence against others. Equimundo’s report, Making the Connections: Masculinities and Male Trauma, highlights the role masculinities play in boys and men’s ability to cope with their impact.

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.

Advancing girls and women in male-dominated industries requires the leadership, participation, commitment, and allyship of men. Engendering Industries, in partnership with Equimundo, works to engage men and individuals who identify as male to be workplace gender equality champions. 

The Men in focus practice guide from Our Watch is designed to support people to address masculinities and work with men in the prevention of men’s violence against women.

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

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

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