Rethinking conceptual representations of masculinity in international development gender equality training

ABSTRACT

Training men to become advocates for gender equality and to prevent violence against women is increasingly seen as an important aspect of international development work. Many international curricula have been developed that aim to improve gender equality and prevent men’s violence against women by teaching (male) participants about gender relations, However the extent to which feminist and critical masculinities literature has influenced the pedagogical content is not well known. This paper explores a sample of training programmes focussing on both the explicit and implicit conceptual representation of ‘masculinity’ as it is taught to participants. A range of shortcomings of the operationalisation of ‘masculinity’ in the curricula is revealed and a proposal for moving to a profeminist pedagogy is presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• masculinity
• critical pedagogy
• international development
• violence prevention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stephen Fisher is a lecturer in the Public Health Department at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. His research interests focus on the role of men and masculinity in gender power relations, with specific emphasis using feminist scholarship to inform violence prevention practice. He currently serves as member of White Ribbon Australia’s Research & Policy advisory committee.

ORCID

Stephen Fisher http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8800-2646

Notes

1. These are the main international clearinghouse sites that provide links to resources in relation to working with men on gender equality and violence against women in the international development sector.

2. See Fausto-Sterling, (1996) for a comprehensive critique of such claims.