Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;16(2):228-251.
doi: 10.1177/1097184X12472336.

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

Erin A Casey  1 , Juliana Carlson  2 , Cathlyn Fraguela-Rios  3 , Ericka Kimball  4 , Tova B Neugut  5 , Richard M Tolman  5 , Jeffrey L Edleson  6
Affiliations

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

Erin A Casey et al. Men Masc. 2013 Jun.

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.

Keywords: engaging men; globalization; prevention; violence against women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Atherton-Zeman B. Minimizing the damage - male accountability in stopping men’s violence against women. A Journal of the Battered Women’s Movement. 2009 Spring;:8–13.
    1. Black MC, Basile KC, Breiding MJ, Smith SG, Walters ML, Merrick MT, Chen J, Stevens MR. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2011.
    1. Berkowitz AD. Working with Men to Prevent Violence against Women: An Overview. [Accessed March 19, 2012];VAWnet: National Online Resource Center on Violence against Women. 2004 http://www.vawnet.org/applied-research-papers/?type=Prevention.
    1. Bronfenbrenner U. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1979.
    1. Carlson JC, Casey EA, Edleson J, Tolman R, Neugut T, Kimball E. Strategies to Engage Men and Boys in Violence Prevention: A Global Organizational Perspective. Violence against Women in press. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources