How are domestic and sexual violence workplace issues, and what can we do to prevent and reduce them? This talk provides an accessible introduction to the workplace prevention of domestic and sexual violence. Men in particular have a positive role to play in violence prevention. Professor Flood explores the everyday steps that men can take to make a difference, the mistakes it’s easy to make, and the ways forward in building more respectful, inclusive workplaces for everyone.
Working with Boys and Men
Programs that engage men and boys in health promotion and violence prevention are proliferating. Many aim to foster “healthy masculinities”, using education and support to involve men and boys in adopting more positive or gender-equitable forms of selfhood and relating.
This paper offers a critical stocktake of 15 'healthy masculinities' programs in one state in Australia, assessing them against common standards for gender-transformative programming among men and boys.
Men in workplaces can make influential contributions to progress towards gender equality. Most men support principles of fairness and equity in workplaces and most welcome women’s participation in STEM. Despite this, few men so far have actively supported efforts to increase women’s participation. However, male allyship is vital if we are to make progress.
Men must call each other out when they see disrespect, because the behaviour we walk past is the behaviour we accept, writes Keith Tracey-Patte.
It’s now four years since the death of Hannah Clarke and her children and 10 years since the murder of Luke Batty. And here we are again. In the last seven days we have seen three separate atrocities and the violent deaths of more women, children and men.
(Speech by Professor Michael Flood at the launch of The Man Box 2024.)
Let’s think about that model of traditional masculinity, toxic masculinity, dominant masculinity, whatever we want to call it. That version of manhood based on being tough, aggressive, stoic, homophobic, and dominant over women.
Good news and bad news
First, there’s some good news. Most men don’t personally endorse this model of manhood. Most men believe that:
The Working Together with Men (WTWM) model is an evolving and innovative approach for engaging identifying men in allyship. With a unique focus on strengthening men's accountability towards gender equity and violence prevention efforts.
How men can support gender equality is a topic that is rarely talked about. Over the last decade, I researched how men as senior leader and middle managers support gender equality in the work context. My book ‘Men Stepping Forward – Leading Your Organisation on the Path to Inclusion’ shows some practical steps men can take to become change agents for gender equality.
In engaging men and boys in preventing domestic and sexual violence, what do we need? In the following, I identify key ways forward, addressing both our overall approach in violence prevention and particular prevention strategies. I focus on primary prevention – on efforts to prevent the initial perpetration of domestic, family and sexual violence.
Men and masculinities are now on the public agenda. There is growing attention in Ireland and around the world to the gendered attitudes, practices, and relations associated with men and boys and their implications for health, violence and gender inequality. There are various signs of this: intensified public debate over codes of masculinity, growing attention to men and masculinities in policy and programming, increasing scholarship on the links between masculinities and various social issues, and men’s activism and advocacy.
Apart from what it means in their own lives, men’s exposure to violence, trauma and adversity are key risk factors for men’s self-inflicted harm and their use of violence against others. Equimundo’s report, Making the Connections: Masculinities and Male Trauma, highlights the role masculinities play in boys and men’s ability to cope with their impact.