ABSTRACT
MEN AND CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING Consciousness-raising has a different significance and meaning for men than for women, but it is no less important. It provides men with a way of exploring the interrelationship of the personal and the political, the emotional and the structural. It is not unproblematic for men because we have often been brought up to be wary of engaging emotionally with other men so that often it is easier for us to intellectualise our experience rather than share it. It is exactly here that we have traditionally been dependent on women, though we often fail to identify the dependency for what it is, so used are we to identifying our masculinity with being independent and self-sufficient. It becomes almost second nature to us.1 We learn to pride ourselves in not needing others, which is partly what makes it so difficult to acknowledge, let alone identify and name, our needs within relationships.
