EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Some have argued that more men should play a role in ending violence against women - but what do we know about those men who are already ...doing so?
Using case studies from Spain, Sweden and the UK, this book highlights those men who are already taking action. Examining the social, cultural, political and economic factors that support men to take a public stance, the authors explore what we can learn from their experiences in order to help build the movement to end violence against women.
This important study will inform scholars and students of sociology and gender studies, as well as social movements and organisations working to involve and engage men and boys in achieving gender equality.
"EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Using case studies from Europe and the UK, this book highlights those men who are taking action to eradicate violence against women. ...Examining the factors that support men to take a public stance, the authors also demonstrate what we can learn from their experiences to help build the movement to end violence against women. This important study will inform grassroots movements working to involve and engage men and boys in building gender equality."
Conclusions: where next? Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women,
07/2021
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
Knowing how prevalent violence against women and girls is in society and the devastation it causes, it is our contention that more people - men and boys included - need to play a part in the struggle ...to reduce and ultimately end it. This means not only being an equal and non-violent partner in interpersonal, family and work lives, but also being willing to speak out publicly - to challenge and take a public stance against violence against women. This is controversial in some ways, not least because of some of the obstacles identified in this book. On the one hand, men may be 'put on a pedestal', potentially taking praise for work and ideas initiated by women. Some men involved in anti-violence against women work have themselves used violence, abuse or harassment against women. On the other hand, this research has shown that being a man speaking publicly on this topic is not without risks and struggles. It can be difficult for men to join friendship groups with other men involved in this work. However, they can simultaneously find it difficult to join in more traditional men's friendship groups because they can be seen as 'different' or 'argumentative' (for example if they challenge sexist jokes). Just as 'hate' mail - be it online or offline - is frequently experienced by women who work in this field (Lewis, Rowe and Wiper, 2017), this research has shown that men may also be on the receiving end of hatred from other men in relation to their public stance against men's violence against women.
Becoming involved Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women,
07/2021
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
Why and how some men become active in speaking out about men's violence against women is a question which arouses considerable interest and curiosity. Yet it is a topic there has been relatively ...little research on to date, even though critical studies on men and masculinities has grown considerably as a field of research since the turn of the century. Where research has been carried out in this area, it has largely been based on contexts such as the United States and Australia rather than on European countries. Most of the data within this chapter comes from the interview sample, although we draw on the survey data where relevant.
In line with previous research outlined in Chapter 1, in nearly all cases (though with some notable exceptions where men were catapulted into the work following a family tragedy), men's involvement was a process rather than a particular epiphany, and the men were able to trace their involvement through a number of influences in their child and adult lives.
First, we will discuss our survey findings on why it is so important that men take a public stance against violence against women.
There are a number of potential benefits to men taking action against men's violence towards women - for women and girls, for wider society and for men and boys themselves (Jewkes, Flood and Lang, 2015). We asked our survey respondents about what they felt the main positive outcomes were.
Getting more men involved Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women,
07/2021
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
In his book on anti-sexist men, Christian wrote in 1994 that the men whose life stories are presented in his book are probably an 'untypical minority' (1994: 4), but that he hoped it would be a road ...that more men will travel down in the future. Unfortunately, it remains the case today that the stories that are contained within our book still represent a somewhat 'untypical minority'. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of this book is to see how this may become a more common route for more men in the future, and it is this topic that we turn our attention to in this chapter. Using the interviews and survey results, we look at the contexts that our participants felt were more and less conducive to men speaking out publicly about men's violence against women, before considering some of the positives that we might build on in this regard, and then some of the obstacles. Some of these obstacles are ones that might need to be overcome, while others are likely to be more fixed and need men to be able to navigate or sit alongside rather than to actively try to overcome them.
In Chapter 2 we explored the individual motivations for the men in our interview sample to become involved. Here we are more concerned about the social, cultural, political and economic issues that might make it easier or more likely that men within particular social groups or contexts will think critically about violence against women and consider taking profeminist action.
Being involved Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women,
07/2021
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
Having looked at the routes into involvement, we now turn to the experiences of men once they are involved in men's activism to end violence against women. We look at the ways in which men are ...supported to do this work - primarily through women feminist activists and practitioners - but also to a lesser extent from other men in a range of settings (as friends, as other men working to end violence against women). As well as considering the support and the positive aspects of involvement, it is also important to make visible and discuss the obstacles or struggles that men might face and any problems or limitations of men being involved in this work. Obstacles and struggles can be located in the personal, the professional and/or the political. Even though we at times try to separate these analytically in the book, these spaces, in reality, often overlap. Often, the interviewees described criticisms as coming from multiple directions, from women and women's groups as well as from other men and men's groups.
Just as women emerged as very important in men becoming involved in this work, they were the primary support that men talked about as important to sustaining their involvement. Many of the men we interviewed talked about extremely influential relationships with women that they had longstanding friendships with. In the previous chapter we talked about how women as friends or family were very influential in becoming involved. This part of the chapter is about developing and sustaining that involvement; the focus shifts away from friends and family generally and towards women working in the feminist violence against women movement.
The need for men's involvement Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men's Activism to End Violence Against Women,
07/2021
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
Men's violence against women and girls is a problem crossing all social groups. Globally, it constitutes a leading cause of the premature death of women and children, with its impacts ricocheting far ...into all communities (Westmarland, 2015). Many have argued that men must engage further in the movement to end violence against women. However, there is relatively little knowledge available about structural and individual factors that might enable and support this engagement. This book aims to develop an understanding of the factors that enable men to actively take a stance against men's violence against women. Based on a survey and in-depth interviews with men who are involved in this work in three European countries (Spain, Sweden and the UK), we explored the men's own personal backgrounds and motivations as well as asking them to act as 'experts' in understanding which factors (personal, socio-cultural, political and/or economic) might encourage and support more men to become active.
This is a field of research that we as authors have been involved in in a variety of ways for different lengths of time. The research project leading up to this book initially came about through discussions between Nicole Westmarland, Sandy Ruxton and Keith Pringle, with others joining the project as it progressed. The research was funded by the British Academy.
Conclusions: where next? Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men’s Activism to End Violence Against Women,
2021
Book Chapter
Getting more men involved Westmarland, Nicole; Almqvist, Anna-Lena; Holmgren, Linn Egeberg ...
Men’s Activism to End Violence Against Women,
2021
Book Chapter
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