Please share your insights and experiences throughout the learning process by posting your thoughts, questions, and reactions on the Discussion Board.

Lesson 1: Introductory Reading: Men, Masculinities, and Violence

Lesson 2: Discussion: Why Work with Men & Boys

Lesson 3: Applying a Comprehensive Approach

Lesson 4: Examples: Good Practices and Programs

Lesson 5: Active Roles: What Men and Boys Can Do

Lesson 6: Work with Young Men

Lesson 7: Work with Schools

Lesson 8: Cross-Cultural Solidarity

Lesson 9: Readings: Build Partnerships

Lesson 10: Organizational Exercise: Build Partnerships

Lesson 1: Introductory Reading: Men, Masculinities, and Violence

These short readings will help you understand key issues related to men, gender, and violence. The readings cover the concept of masculinity and the relationships between masculine messages, socialization processes, and men’s violence.

1. Read and discuss the following articles:

“The Seven P’s of Men’s Violence” by Michael Kaufman.
This article examines the root causes of men’s violence (such as patriarchy, privilege, and past experience) and helps construct a holistic picture of the factors behind violence.

Refusing to "Be a Man!" by Steven Botkin
This article explores some of pressures and consequences of the repeated societal message to "be a man" and proposes an alternative vision for men.

“Men, Masculinity, and Violence” by James Lang
This speech, presented at the 2002 International Conference on Eradicating Violence against Women and Girls in Berlin, outlines connections between men, masculinity, and violence and argues for greater involvement of men in antiviolence work.

“On Men and Violence” by Robert Connell.
This article sets the stage for understanding men’s socialization and its relationship to men’s violence.

Reflection Questions:

• What are masculinities? How is understanding the concept of masculinities useful for designing work with men and boys on preventing gender-based violence?
• What are some of the socialization processes for shaping boys into men that may encourage men to use violence or sanction the use of violence?
• What are some of the costs to men of conforming to dominant masculine roles?

2. Do the exercise Act like a Man.

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts on, reactions to, and experiences of the connections between men, masculinities, and violence.

Further Reading

“Men, Masculinities and Development: Broadening Our Work Towards Gender Equality” by Alan Greig, Michael Kimmel, and James Lang (2000).
This discussion of the meanings and uses of masculinities describes the implications for social services provision and development.

“Pain Explodes in a World of Power: Men’s Violence,” Chapter 7 of the book Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain, and the Lives of Men by Michael Kaufman.
This chapter explores key factors behind violence—men’s contradictory experiences of power and the pain related to dominant masculine norms.

“Men, Masculinity, and Violence” by Michael Flood.
This speech argues that the links between men and violence are social and cultural, not biological. He explains why he and other men are taking action against men’s violence, and the everyday steps that men can take to help end it.

“Understanding Men: Gender Sociology and the New International Research on Masculinities” by Robert Connell.
This paper surveys recent academic work on masculinities and summarizes common elements and useful conclusions from this varied literature.

Lesson 2: Discussion: Why Work with Men & Boys?

This section explores some of the compelling reasons to work with men and boys to prevent violence as well as some of the challenges to doing that work. Discussing the reflection questions will help you and your colleagues think about what might motivate men and boys to get involved in violence prevention and how you can talk with them about it.

1. Read and discuss Top 10 Reasons for Working with Men and Boys.

Reflection Questions:

• Why is it so important to work with men and boys on violence prevention now?
• What are the most important reasons for working with men and boys? What reasons are the most important to you, and why?
• What in your personal and professional experience has led you to believe we need to work with men and boys to prevent violence?
• How will working with men and boys contribute to your personal or organizational goal of ending gender-based violence?

2. Read and discuss Making the Case to Men & Boys.

Reflection Questions:

• Do you expect men to play a role in preventing violence against women without any benefit to themselves? Why or why not?
• What are some of the benefits of ending violence for men?

Role Play: It’s Not My Business

This exercise helps you to look more closely at motivating men and boys to get involved. It uses role playing to develop skills and talking points to motivate men who are reluctant or resistant.

Use this exercise in a group setting to explore participants’ understanding of and attitudes about men’s motivations for getting involved in preventing gender-based violence.

1. Break the group into groups of four participants.
2. In each foursome, ask one person to play the Male Motivator and one person to play the Male Resistor; the other two members are Observers. Please note that women can play men.
3. Give the Motivators a copy of the talking points “Making the case to men and boys”
4. Ask the Motivators to read the list, and explain that their task is to persuade the Resistors to get involved in violence prevention. Ask the Resistors to think of reasons why it is not their business to get involved.
5. Tell the Motivator and Resistor in each group to begin the role play. Allow it to run for several minutes. Stop, and ask the Observers to give feedback to the Motivators on how well they did.
6. Swap roles in each group, with the two Observers becoming the Motivator and the Resistor, and repeat steps 2 – 4.
7. Bring everyone back together as one group and sum up the talking points that are most effective for motivating men and boys to prevent violence.

4. Read and discuss Countering Objections.

Reflection Questions:

Use these questions to help you and your colleagues think about and counter the concerns that people may have about working with men and boys to prevent violence.

• What personal assumptions and attitudes about men do you have that might challenge the work you do with them?
• What challenges to working with men and boys do you think you will face in your own community?
• What might you do to overcome these challenges?

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences.

Lesson 3: Apply a Comprehensive Approach

Men’s violence has a number of underlying causes, and understanding these causes and how they interact at various social levels is a first step toward prevention. This approach, known as the social ecology model, is also useful for exploring different types of prevention responses and how they are connected. The discussion questions below will help you understand the causes of gender-based violence in social environments.

1. Read and discuss A Comprehensive Approach.

Reflection Questions:

• What are the most important factors underlying gender-based violence? Why?
• How are these factors related to one another?
• Are there other factors that are not outlined in the social ecology model?

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences related to taking a comprehensive approach and using the social ecology model.

Lesson 4: Good Practices and Program Examples

This lesson explores different types of initiatives for working with men and boys and the good practices common to this work. One aim of this lesson is to illustrate the necessity of a cohesive, comprehensive prevention plan that provides entry points for working with men and boys at various levels of the social ecology.

1. Read and discuss Good Practices.

Reflection Questions:

• Do these good practices reflect the type of work you do or plan to do?
• Which of these practices will be the most difficult for your organization to implement? Which will be the easiest?
• Based on your experience, are there other practices you would add to this list?

2. Discuss Apply a Comprehensive Approach

in light of good practices for violence prevention.

Reflection Questions:

• What types of violence prevention initiatives for men and boys are you familiar with?
• Where do they fit in the social ecology model?
• How are these initiatives related to work at other levels of the social ecology? Do they reinforce one another? If not, how can they be made more cohesive?

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts about using the social ecology model to develop a comprehensive approach to working with men and boys.

Further Reading

“A Coordinated Collaborative Approach to Address and Combat Teen Dating Abuse” by Rus Ervin Funk
This paper looks at how and why teens are overlooked and underserved in violence prevention efforts, and provides a real-life example of how to reach teens in abusive relationships though coordinated community response initiatives in the legal, intervention, service delivery, education, and prevention arenas.

“Violence Against Women: An Integrated, Ecological Framework,” Violence Against Women, 4(3); by Lori Heise (1998). (Not available online)
This article gives a thorough account of factors at different levels of society that are related to violence against women.

The Initiative for Violence-Free Families and Communities in Ramsey County, Minnesota: Fourteen Years of Innovative Strategies to Prevent Family Violence by Donald Gault
This case study describes the spectrum of prevention programs initiated in one U.S. county.

“Promoting Collaboration within State Government to Prevent Domestic and Sexual Violence: Prevention Institute” by Shailushi Baxi, Rachel Davis, and Larry Cohen
This case study illustrates that partnership with different levels of government is a crucial part of a comprehensive approach.

Lesson 5: What Men and Boys Can Do: Active Roles

This lesson focuses on developing prevention initiatives based on roles and responsibilities for men and boys. These roles range from changes in men’s own behaviors to confronting violent and sexist behaviors in others to serving as role models and working for change.

1. Read and discuss What Men & Boys Can Do.

Reflection Questions:

• What are some ways we can encourage young and adult men to reflect upon their own behaviors and attitudes?
• How would you respond if you asked a male friend to get involved in an initiative to prevent gender-based violence and he said, “This isn’t my problem?”
• How does a man’s peer culture affect whether he speaks out about sexism and men’s violence toward women?
• What are the qualities of a good ally? What makes it hard for men to be good allies in ending gender-based violence?

Further Reading

“Political Connections: Men, Gender and Violence” by Alan Greig
This paper discusses the politics of men’s roles and responsibilities in efforts to end gender-based violence. Ending violence is more than a matter of individual men changing their behavior; it also requires political action to challenge the systems that reinforce and promote violence.

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts on and experiences of the roles and responsibilities of men and boys in preventing gender-based violence.

Lesson 6: Work with Young Men

This overview covers why working with young men is crucial, presents good practices for this work, and provides exercises used by different prevention groups that work with young men.

1. Read and discuss the entire section Work with Young Men.

2. Reflection Questions:

• In what ways do you see young men as a problem, dangerous, difficult, or prone to violence?
• What messages do boys get about “being a man” in your community or neighborhood?
• Where are the best places in your community or neighborhood to meet young men and engage them in this work?
• How could you start talking with young men in order to engage them?

3. Review these exercises:

Continuum of Harm to Women (Men Can Stop Rape)

Seeing Violence Against A Woman. (Oakland Men’s Project)

Risk and Violence: Tests of Courage (Instituto Promundo)

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences.

Further Reading

Guy to Guy Project case study, Instituto Promundo, Brazil
This case study of a peer training and social marketing project outlines reasons to work with young men on violence prevention and reproductive health, and relates some of the good practices the project has developed over the years.

The Social Norms Approach to Violence Prevention by Alan Berkowitz
Research on social norms suggests that most young men are mistaken about other young men’s attitudes and behaviors. In fact, most males are uncomfortable with violence against women and with the attitudes, behaviors, and language of men who commit such violence. But young men do not act on their beliefs or express their discomfort because they falsely think that other men do not feel the same.

Lesson 7: Work Through Schools

This lesson covers opportunities and good practices for working with young men through schools for violence prevention.

1. Read and discuss Work Through Schools

2. Reflection Questions:

• Do you see schools as a positive and safe environment for youth?
• What do you see as some of the greatest challenges to working through schools?
• What are some possibilities for overcoming these challenges?

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts on and experiences of working with young men through schools to prevent violence.

Further Reading

Young Men as Allies in Preventing Violence and Abuse: Building Effective Partnerships with Schools (FVPF-BPI)
This overview paper, which was part of the Family Violence Prevention Fund’s online discussion series, addresses the pros and cons of working through schools.

Thames Valley District School Board
This case study describes various prevention programs instituted in the Thames Valley School District in Ontario, Canada.

Expect Respect: A School-Based Program Promoting Safe and Healthy Relationships for Youth
The Expect Respect program at SafePlace in Austin, Texas, has been providing school-based services since 1988 in response to requests from school counselors seeking support for girls in abusive dating relationships.

Safe Communities ~ Safe Schools Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
The Safe Communities ~ Safe Schools model helps schools design a safe-school plan. The goal of this model is to create and maintain a positive and welcoming school climate—one free of drugs, violence, intimidation, and fear—that the community strongly supports.

Men Can Stop Rape’s MOST Clubs (Men of Strength Clubs)
See Men Can Stop Rape’s Web site to read more about the group’s work with schools in Washington, D.C.

Lesson 8: Cross-Cultural Solidarity

This lesson will help organizations and individuals orient themselves in solidarity with organizations and individuals from other social, cultural, and ethnic groups. It lays out a seven-step process that will help you understand the imbalance of power between different races, ethnicities, and social groups; recognize oppression; and become aware of your own culture and forms of privilege. It emphasizes that culture can be an asset in violence prevention efforts, and that solidarity is based on common humanity—not unequal positions.

1. Read and do the exercises in Cross-Cultural Solidarity.

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences related to working toward cross-cultural solidarity.

Further Reading

Beyond Cultural Competence by Juan Carlos Areán
In this short article, Areán argues that advocates shift their focus from cultural competence to cultural solidarity. Cultural solidarity is the ability to effectively operate in different cultural contexts through “the comprehension of the unique experiences of members from a different culture through awareness of one's own culture, empathic understanding of oppression and critical assessment of one's own privilege.”

“Next Steps in Diversity” by Paul Kivel
In this short article, Kivel outlines some of the important steps to prepare for and undertake diversity work.

Lesson 9: Building Partnerships

Building violence-prevention alliances with other organizations will create stronger coalitions for advocacy and policy change, strengthen skills within your organization, and help to establish a rational division of labor across levels and sectors while avoiding duplication of efforts. These partnerships, however, do not come without compromises and internal reflection within organizations. This lesson explores the benefits and challenges of institutional partnerships.

1. Read and discuss Build Partnerships (Overview, Organizational Alliances, and Workplace Partnerships).

2. Reflection Questions:

• What in your personal and professional experience has led you to believe we need to work with a more diverse spectrum of organizations?
• How will broader alliances contribute to the goal of ending gender-based violence?
• What in your personal and professional experience has highlighted the difficulties of men and women working together for violence prevention?
• What are some ways to overcome the challenges to building new partnerships? How can we move forward?

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences related to building partnerships.

Further Reading

“Building a ‘Big Tent’ Approach to Ending Men’s Violence” by Jackson Katz
This paper explores the potential of the growing “big tent” approach to ending men’s violence and envisions what it might accomplish. It argues for expanding prevention work and gives examples of how we can begin to engage more individuals and organizations with a large male membership.

Faith-based Communities, a case study by Rev. Marie Fortune, the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence
Faith-based organizations are a crucial ally in prevention efforts. Millions of men across the nation participate in faith-based communities whose leaders, often male, typically enjoy significant moral authority and shape in important ways the values and behavior of the men in their congregations.

Joint Labor and Management Domestic Violence Awareness Program, a case study by KC Wagner
Organizations including the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), AFSCME Women’s Rights Division, and the Family Violence Prevention Fund have placed domestic violence on the union agenda. Recently, organizations such as the New York Labor Coalition Against Domestic Violence have begun to explore prevention activities that reach out to men.

Lesson 10: Building Partnerships, Part 2

This lesson is for organizations that want to build new alliances in order to increase the reach and effectiveness of their violence prevention work. You should complete Lesson 9 before proceeding.

1. Do the exercise Expanding Alliances,

Go to the Discussion Board to share your thoughts, reactions, and experiences related to the expanding alliances exercise.

__________________________________________________________________________________