Over the past decade, men's involvement in anti-domestic violence in China has made great progress.
In 2010, the first male-led "male anti-domestic violence hotline" was set up in China, which was officially committed to promoting men's participation in social movements against gender violence. The hotline is open round-the-clock throughout the whole year, which also marks a new era of sustained work and development of China's Male Participation movement from this year on.
It doesn’t happen all at once.
There may be a time or two when you have some trouble getting an erection. After a while you notice that it isn’t as hard as it once was. Then you actually lose your erection while having sex.
The more bad experiences you have, the more you worry. And the more you worry, the worse the problems get. Before you know it, erectile dysfunction has become a part of your life.
There has been much progress in gender justice becoming a main advocacy point on a global level. Yet, gender inequality continues to be present and cross-cutting in various aspects of life, and continues to negatively affect people’s lives in various ways, especially women and girls. Many programs in the past decade have considered the importance of engaging men and boys in gender justice as means to address gender inequality, and have thus begun designing and implementing initiatives with this methodology.
Engaging men and boys in the prevention of domestic violence is, at its heart, a project of social justice. A feminist and social justice approach to domestic violence prevention, first, recognizes domestic violence as a social injustice: this violence causes harm, is fundamentally linked to power and inequality, and acts as a fundamental barrier to gender equality. Second, it addresses the social inequalities at the root of this violence and, third, it works for change through social action. How do contemporary efforts to engage men and boys measure up to this approach?
NOTE: Now also see the 5-page Policy Brief, summarising this report and released in November 2021, available here.
------
Soon after the presidential race is decided it will be imperative for the U.S. to hold a series of town hall conversations; one must be about rejecting patriarchy. Male domination continues to play too big a role in aggravating the divide that afflicts us.
Engaged fathers matter enormously for children and for early childhood development. Yet women around the world still do three times as much childcare and unpaid domestic work as men do. In the ZERO TO THREE Journal, Promundo’s Gary Barker, Ruti Levtov, and Brian Heilman present an overview of evidence and lessons learned from the MenCare campaign, including recommendations for achieving the goal of equality in care work.
Trying to change the world? Here are some key resources.
Here are nine free books on how: guides to activism, advocacy, community organising, and social change work. And below them, there are some guides on self-care for activists.
Books on doing activism
Mobilising men is a vital part of social change towards gender equality, but it is under-developed in Australia.
