The UN Women Training Center has developed a great resource for men to educate ourselves: the Self-Learning Booklet: Masculinities and Violence against Women and Girls (2016).
The booklet was developed as the result of a series of training courses that aim to strengthen capacities of development practitioners and advocates to understand, integrate and address critical gender issues in their lives and work. This tool aims to assist both UN and non-UN staff to better understand the issues of masculinities in relation to violence against women and girls.
This didactic booklet for beginners provides four chapters:
- Chapter 1: Masculinity Matters
- Chapter 2: Learning to be Men
- Chapter 3: Masculinities and Violence against Women and Girls
- Chapter 4: From Patriarchal Masculinities to Transformative Masculinities
The Booklet provides a wide variety of examples on the harmful ideas of masculinities and femininity, as well as practice quizzes aimed at increasing knowledge and causing reflection. Its premise is that "In all societies there are many ideas about masculinity and femininity that are harmful, not just to girls and women, but also to boys and men, as well as people of other gender identities”.
Citation: UN Women Training Centre. (2016). Understanding masculinities and violence against women and girls: Self-learning booklet. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: UN Women Training Centre.