Negotiating space: alternative masculinities at the work/home boundary

Abstract

The boundaries between male and female space, work and home, public and private, are in the process of re‐definition as part of the changing cultural construction of gendered identities and spaces. Qualitative interviews with members of men's groups are used to explore men's attitudes to, and cultural practices of, work and home, and in particular their negotiations of time, space and masculinity. For many men, the constraints of work enforced hegemonic masculinity, whereas in the private spaces of the home, and of men's groups, men were more able to negotiate alternative masculinities.

Key Words:

• Negotiation
• lived identities
• tension
• masculinities
• men's groups
• alternative masculinities