Context, Challenges, and Tensions in Global Efforts to Engage Men in the Prevention of Violence against Women

Abstract

As gender-based violence prevention programs around the world increasingly include efforts to engage men and boys as antiviolence allies, both the profound benefits and the inherent complexities of these efforts are emerging. Acknowledging and exploring tensions associated with engaging men is an important element of thoughtfully fostering men’s antiviolence ally movements so as to both respectfully invite men into anti-violence work and create effective, gender-equitable prevention programming. To this end, this study presents descriptive findings regarding challenges associated with men’s engagement programming from in-depth interviews with twenty-nine representatives of organizations that engage men and boys in preventing violence against women and girls in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America. Programs reported negotiating complex issues related to gender, the intersectional nature of men’s identities, and establishing legitimacy and sustainability within communities while maintaining ideological focus and consistency. Additionally, programs reported that these tensions manifest across ecological layers of analysis, and impact both the participation of individual men and the programs’ experiences in community and national contexts.

Primary Prevention Is? A Global Perspective on How Organizations Engaging Men in Preventing Gender-Based Violence Conceptualize and Operationalize Their Work

“…Additional articles from this same research project have outlined the social processes and strategies that have been utilized to engage men in anti-violence organizations, as well as the tensions inherent in a men’s engagement approach to anti-violence work. Please see Carlson et al (in press) and Casey et al (2013) for more in-depth descriptions of the findings that emerged from these prior analyses.…”

“…Many organizations may not have the resources to access tested interventions or to evaluate their own efforts. Evidence from a previous analysis of the data used here suggests that prevention program evaluation is further complicated by a disjuncture between needs at a local level, and broader social structures, norms, policy or funding priorities (Casey et al, 2013). Indeed, across prevention efforts in other health promotion domains such as substance abuse prevention, there has been limited evidence of an impact on public health outcomes due to a low rate of implementing evidence-based programming (Biglan & Taylor, 2000; Sandler, Ostrom, Bitner, Ayers, Wolchik, et al, 2005) and a lack of fit between these programs and the “goals and capacities” of community–based agencies (Sandler, et al, 2005).…”

Pattern of oral‐maxillofacial trauma from violence against women and its associated factors

“…6 Exposure to violence can reduce participation in social life, instill fear, and negatively impact the quality of life of victims. 6 Exposure to violence can reduce participation in social life, instill fear, and negatively impact the quality of life of victims.…”

The bystander approach to violence prevention: Considerations for implementation in Europe.

“…( WHO, 2007in Casey et al, 2012, and the importance of not generating resistance. We found the participation of the SBC, and male students in particular, to be critical in mediating these tensions and for addressing the engagement of male participants in our particular country -specific context.…”