Working with Boys and Men

This new report explores how a care-centered approach can strengthen efforts to prevent men’s violence against women and girls. Produced by Equimundo for the MenCare Changemaker Summit 2026, the report examines how empathy, caregiving, relational accountability, and gender equality can help foster healthier masculinities and safer communities.

Drawing on global research and decades of violence prevention work, the report highlights practical strategies for engaging men and boys as caregivers, allies, and active partners in building a more just and non-violent world.

This resource provides a rapid landscape analysis of the organisations, institutions, and initiatives working across Australia to engage men and boys in gender equality. Conducted as a collaboration between Dalberg Advisors and Equimundo, this mapping highlights the depth and diversity of work already underway, spanning violence prevention, education, men’s health, caregiving, and digital culture.

Online misogyny is a global challenge with far-reaching consequences for equality, safety and public health. It directly fuels gender-based violence (GBV) and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) against women, girls and LGBTQ+ communities. While women and girls remain the primary targets, boys and young men are also affected both as potential partici­pants in misogynistic environments, and victims of the same systems and norms that drive them.

The Australian organisation ManCave released an open letter on May 14, titled “An open letter to the sector working with men and boys, in healthy masculinities, gender equity, and the prevention of violence”. Professsor Steven Roberts and colleagues responded to this in a Substack post.

In the field of violence prevention work with men and boys, there is growing interest in engaging men as fathers. Fatherhood is identified as a key entry point that can be strategically leveraged to support male engagement, both during men’s transition to parenthood and throughout their involvements as parents and caregivers.

Four streams of work have converged to shape interest in engaging men as fathers in the prevention of domestic and sexual violence: 

Male allies are men who act to challenge patriarchal inequalities. Male allies ideally take everyday action to challenge sexist behaviours and relations, act in solidarity with women, and hold themselves accountable for striving to meet a gender-equitable standard.

This article summarises some of the research on allies, covering: 

Parenting programs have been identified as a promising strategy to strengthen parenting skills; increase men’s participation in caregiving; improve the quality of family relationships, health, and well-being; and prevent violence against children. Yet, most parenting programs primarily reach mothers and female caregivers, but fathers and male caregivers also have the power to transform their children’s lives.

Political institutions around the world remain shaped by gender norms that influence expectations of leadership, authority, and power. These norms often reinforce patterns in which political leadership and decision making are associated with men and masculinity, shaping how political parties, parliaments, and other institutions operate and who is able to participate fully and lead in politics and public life.

In countries across the world, there are growing numbers of men taking action to help end violence against women. 

And there are growing efforts to engage men and boys in prevention efforts: as participants in education programs, as targets of social marketing campaigns, as activists and advocates, and as leaders and policy makers.

The VicHealth Framing Masculinity Message Guide offers evidence-based strategies to challenge harmful traditional masculine stereotypes in Australia. It promotes productive conversations, aiming to encourage healthier, more diverse, and flexible norms for men and boys