A Critical Stocktake of Community-Based Healthy Masculinities Programs in Victoria, Australia

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A Critical Stocktake of Community-Based Healthy Masculinities Programs in Victoria, Australia 2024 - Abstract

Programs that engage men and boys in health promotion and violence prevention are proliferating. Many aim to foster “healthy masculinities”, using education and support to involve men and boys in adopting more positive or gender-equitable forms of selfhood and relating. 

This paper offers a critical stocktake of 15 'healthy masculinities' programs in one state in Australia, assessing them against common standards for gender-transformative programming among men and boys. 

The programs are diverse in their aims and approaches and their understandings of men and gender. There were common themes, that men’s and boys’ lives are constrained by typical constructions of masculinity and that there are widespread gender inequalities that disadvantage women and girls, although the balance between these differed among programs. 

The full paper can be downloaded here.

Citation: Flood, M., Hewson-Munro, S., & Keddie, A. (2024). A Critical Stocktake of Community-Based Healthy Masculinities Programs in Victoria, Australia. Journal of Men’s Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/106082652412499