We know the heartbreaking truth. The number of women killed by men’s violence in Australia is devastatingly high. There are growing accounts of brazen misogyny and sexual harassment against women teachers and girls in schools – both private and public – up and down the country. Regressive masculine norms have come back into public focus, peddled vociferously by social media ‘manfluencers’ as optimal modes of gender practice for boys and young men. Transphobia and gender nonconformity abuse is on the rise. Intersectional analyses point to profoundly exacerbated injustices for First Nations women, women of colour, women with disabilities and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The grounds for hope for the pursuit of a socially just and gender equitable society feel exceptionally fragile.
And yet… we know from decades of research into men and masculinities, the drivers of this reality include changeable cultural and individual level endorsements of harmful, patriarchal masculine norms. We also know that, as per the Man Box data in 2018 and in 2024, while a significant minority of Australian men condone and perpetrate violence against women, and are homophobic or transphobic, the majority of men reject these ideals. Indeed, The Man Box 2024: Re-examining what it means to be a man in Australia shows vividly that this rejection happens in a context where men perceive there to be widespread social pressures to conform to narrow definitions of what it is to be a man. This gives us practitioners, activists, researchers, policy makers and people across communities working to prevent violence reason to stay the course and commit to gender-transformative change at scale.
The question remains, how do we go about addressing the traction of harmful masculine norms? There has been a recent turn in research and scholarship on considering the attitudes, behaviours and stories of men not aligned with these damaging ideals. A growing number of scholars argue that focusing only on those who subscribe to harmful masculinities can narrow the possibility for change. However, spotlighting changed or alternative ways of practicing masculinity – and the personal and societal benefits that such changes can produce – is an essential part of normalising these very alternatives. Through this process of demonstrating that subscription to harmful definitions of masculinity is not required, not ordinary and not for the majority, we can collectively do more to undermine the social pressure to conform to those norms.
It is here where Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women makes an important contribution. This report gets into the detail of the ways that men can push back against social pressures to conform, as well as exposing the impediments for them to do so. Potential routes to overcome such barriers and build men’s capacity to combat the gendered drivers of violence are offered as vital insights for thinking though primary prevention approaches for awareness raising and attitudinal change.
Reflecting on the five key findings that the report produces, what is striking to me is that they all in different ways situate men as deeply relational beings. This is against the grain of the common trope of men idealising autonomy. Through understanding this relationality, the role of different social contexts for further capacity building more fully emerges – families, partners, peer groups and workplaces are all vital resources and domains in which positive change can be and is inspired, supported, and recognised. Media landscapes, social structures and institutions are of course all implicated, and change in these is a two way and reciprocal process that sits in dialogue with the relational domains of men’s broader lives.
The contextual backdrop to this report is grim, but the research evidence in the report is promising. Reflecting on this duality, I am reminded of the words of feminist scholar Lynn Segal from over 35 years ago. In the introduction to her book on masculinity and social change, Slow Motion, Segal suggests that, ‘It is possible to steer a course between defeatist pessimism and fatuous optimism’. As we set out to catalyse men’s willingness to further reject harmful masculine norms, this report can help us steer that course.
Steven Roberts
Board Director, Respect Victoria
Professor of Education and Social Justice, Monash University
Victim survivor of patriarchal violence