ABSTRACT

Efforts to engage men in the prevention of men’s violence against women are increasingly well established around the globe. This chapter provides a critical assessment of such efforts. Although most organisations and programs have feminist agendas, the emphasis on ‘engaging men’ also has diluted women’s voices and leadership. Prevention efforts often focus on changing attitudes, rather than seeking to transform structural inequalities, and they sometimes neglect differences in men’s social situations. Some common assumptions in the men’s violence prevention field require contesting or complicating. While interventions can shift men’s violence-supportive attitudes and behaviours, some efforts are ineffective or even harmful. Yes, men benefit from progress towards gender equality, and there are also things men will rightly have to lose. The best people to work with men are not always other men. Appeals to men using the language of ‘real men’ may reinforce the problems they seek to change. Certainly, we must engage men to make progress in preventing violence against women and building gender equality, and we must do so in ways which are most likely to create positive change.