Involving Men in Gender Mainstreaming

It is something of a paradox that the projects of “gender equality” and “gender mainstreaming” require the co-operation of men but are generally framed as “women’s issues”. In this paradox, the process of engaging men is often perceived as one of raising men’s consciousness about the problems faced by women in regard to equality and social justice. In short, the hope is that when men are shown how they individually and systemically oppress women they will see the error of their ways and take steps to mitigate this oppression. The challenge with this strategy is that it requires men’s involvement with gender to be based on empathy with the “other” rather than the pursuit of self-interest, which is a far more compelling motivation.

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