Feminist Solidarity

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Gender & Development

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Feminist solidarity: no boys allowed? Views of pro-feminist men on collaboration and alliance-building with women's movements
Kate Bojin Published online: 04 Jul 2013.
To cite this article: Kate Bojin (2013) Feminist solidarity: no boys allowed? Views of pro-feminist men on collaboration and alliance-building with women's movements, Gender & Development, 21:2, 363-379, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2013.802879 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2013.802879
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Feminist solidarity: no boys allowed? Views of pro-feminist men on collaboration and alliance-building with womens movements
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Kate Bojin
The field of mens pro-feminist organising continues to build global momentum. Boys and men are both capable, and interested, to take action to support the feminist movement. This article explores the experiences of five men active in pro-feminist organising, focusing in particular on their ways of building solidarity and alliances with womens rights networks. The current context of mens pro-feminist organising and the ways in which alliances are being forged with womens rights networks will be explored, demonstrating a diversity of approaches. The challenges are many, particularly as womens rights networks find themselves in a hostile funding climate, and mens rights groups continue to delegitimise womens rights and deny the existence of gender inequality. Despite these challenges, pro-feminist mens organisations are employing strategies to enhance relationships with womens rights networks, and ensure their efforts retain feminist at the core. The importance of self-reflexivity and listening for pro-feminist men to operate in feminist spaces will be stressed, as well as to build broader coalitions and create additional resources for gender equality work. ministe des hommes continue dacque rir un e lan au Le secteur de lorganisation pro-fe ` la fois capables et de sireux de niveau mondial. Les garc ons et les hommes sont a ministe. Cet article examine les prendre des mesures afin de soutenir le mouvement fe riences ministe, en se concentrant expe de cinq hommes actifs dans lorganisation pro-fe `rement sur leurs manie `res de construire la solidarite et des alliances avec tout particulie seaux de de fense des droits de la femme. Le contexte actuel de lorganisation proles re ministe par des hommes et les manie `res dont les alliances sont forge es avec des fe seaux de de fense des droits de la femme seront examine s, mettant en e vidence une re te dapproches. Les de fis sont nombreux, en particulier du fait que les re seaux de varie fense des droits des femmes sont en passe de se retrouver dans un climat de de fense des droits des hommes continuent financement hostile et que les groupes de de le gitimer les droits de femmes et de nier lexistence dine galite s entre les sexes. En de de pit de ces de fis, les organisations dhommes pro-fe ministes ont recours a ` des de gies pour ame liorer les relations avec des re seaux de de fense des droits des femmes strate ` ce que leurs efforts restent fondamentalement fe ministes. Limportance et pour veiller a flexivite et de le coute pour que les hommes pro-fe ministes puissent ope rer de lauto-re
Gender & Development, 2013 Vol. 21, No. 2, 363 379, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2013.802879 Oxfam GB 2013
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ministes sera souligne e, ainsi que celle de la construction de dans les espaces fe ation de ressources supple mentaires pour le travail sur coalitions plus larges et de la cre galite des sexes. le n entre los hombres pro-feministas. A nivel mundial, sigue avanzando la organizacio venes y los hombres expresan intere s, siendo capaces de realizar acciones Los varones jo culo examina las vivencias de cinco de apoyo al movimiento feminista. El presente art hombres que participan activamente en acciones organizativas en pro de las feministas, ndose en particular en co mo los mismos construyen solidaridad y alianzas con centra culo examina y muestra una las redes en torno a los derechos de las mujeres. El art n al contexto actual en el que se establece la diversidad de enfoques en relacio n pro-feminista y a las maneras en que se forjan alianzas con las redes de organizacio los derechos de las mujeres. Existen muchos retos, en especial por el hecho de que estas redes se encuentran en un clima de financiamiento desfavorable y de que los grupos de an deslegitimando los derechos de las mujeres y derechos de los hombres continu nero. A pesar de estos retos, las negando la existencia de la desigualdad de ge organizaciones de hombres pro-feministas utilizan estrategias destinadas a mejorar sus relaciones con las redes de los derechos de las mujeres y a garantizar que sus esfuerzos culo subraya la importancia que para los sigan siendo feministas por excelencia. El art hombres pro-feministas con presencia en espacios feministas tiene ser autoreflexivos, s amplias y crear recursos adicionales para el trabajo escuchar, construir coaliciones ma nero. de igualdad de ge
Key words: mens pro-feminist organising; masculinity; gender equality; alliance-building; collaboration; solidarity
Introduction
Feminist solidarity towards collective action and social justice has largely focused on women-only networks. The growing field of mens pro-feminist organising challenges assumptions that men have no role to play in feminist action, re-casting it as an essential element of progressive change in gender relations. Jonathan Crowe tackles the contradictions of mens engagement in feminism and would argue that it is essential for men to engage in the feminist project, as they must move beyond self-interest and treat the viewpoints and concerns of women as important in their own right (2011, 51). Mens pro-feminist activism is a political project which requires authentic and meaningful alliance-building with womens rights networks. While the importance of these partnerships is clear (Flood 2011), the challenges are many. Womens rights groups are operating within an increasingly hostile funding environment, and seeing their resources threatened as men jump on board. The negative potential of mens
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Feminist solidarity: no boys allowed?
rights groups should not be understated, as they can delegitimise and devalue womens social, economic, and political rights. How, then, are pro-feminist men navigating this complex terrain, and what strategies are they using to build solidarity with womens rights networks, and ultimately take collective action with them? This article draws on research with five men active in pro-feminist organising, based in Brazil, Canada, the United States, Pakistan, and South Africa. Their views provide insights into building effective alliances between pro-feminist men and womens rights networks. The interviews with them aimed to explore the current context of mens pro-feminist organising, and see what solidarity looks like in practice. They also identified some challenges in fostering feminist space between womens rights networks and pro-feminist men.
Mens pro-feminist organising in theory and practice

The thinking behind mens pro-feminist organising Research on men is obviously not a new concept. However, a focus on masculinity, and on men as gendered beings, is relatively recent (Morgan 1981). Looking at masculinity from a feminist perspective, as an identity which does not benefit all men equally, and in fact constrains many by placing unattainable social expectations on them, is very important. Feminist-inflected masculinity studies (Gardiner 2002, 11) allow us to move from conceptualising men as the problem in the struggle for gender equality, to seeing them as part of the solution (Connell 1997). The rationale is that women and men should, and can, co-operate intellectually and politically to challenge inequality. Pro-feminist and anti-feminist work Mens pro-feminist organising has arisen alongside a backlash against feminism, mounted by anti-feminist mens rights groups (Faludi 1992). Some of these mens rights groups have claimed ownership of a growing mens movement, which explicitly denies the reality of womens oppression and gender inequality. Exploring the ideology behind the backlash, Bob Lingard states:
For mens rights advocates, social power is distributed across the private and public realm, they cannot claim to be any more oppressed than men, or more to the point, oppressed by men, as both social spheres have their own privileges and disadvantages / different but equal in their complimentary relation to one another. (1999, 20)
The existence of mens rights groups fuels a disabling climate for social and gender justice advocacy. However, it provides a critical opportunity for pro-feminist men to be explicit in their commitment and support to womens human rights and equality.
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International recognition of the importance of working on gender inequality with men Programming and advocacy with boys and men is an increasingly trendy and hot topic in development. The 1994 United Nations (UN) International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), in Cairo, was the first forum where the international community challenged men to play substantive and meaningful roles in promoting gender equality (Cornwall et al. 2011, 4). Shortly afterwards, the UN Fourth Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995 stressed the principle of shared responsibility to include partnerships with men for gender equality. The Beijing Platform for Action highlighted the importance of mens role in giving support to women by sharing child care and household work equality, and mens responsibility in the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Despite the growing pains of mens pro-feminist organising, there is widespread recognition that, without male involvement, gender interventions will be limited in their ability to transform unequal power relations (Cornwall and White 2000). The challenge is to foster authentic collaboration, which inherently promotes power-sharing and solidarity between pro-feminist men and women feminists. Some of the more wellfunded and recognised organisations which aim to do this include: White Ribbon Campaign (Toronto), MenEngage (Global Online Network), Sonke Gender Justice (South Africa), Instituto Promundo (Brazil), and MASVAW (Mens Action to Stop Violence Against Women, India). In a recent global symposium hosted by MenEngage,
both men and women reiterated that it is of the utmost importance that individuals and organisations working with men and boys engage in dialogue and collaborate even more with womens rights groups, and ensure that their work furthers womens empowerment and gender equity in the most effective ways possible. (Atkin et al. 2009, 5)
Alliance-building between pro-feminist men and womens rights networks Despite the existence and emergence of anti-feminist and mens rights groups, efforts to build solidarity and alliances with womens rights networks seem to be prevalent amongst the majority of mens pro-feminist organisations. Bob Lingard argues that male pro-feminists need to focus on the common ground they share with women feminists, rather than seeing themselves as a separate movement of men only / any mass mens movement is more likely recuperative rather than progressive in character. The focus needs to be on the dismantling of mens solidarity, rather than its reconstruction (1999, 170). A recent study found that nearly 75 per cent of all respondents of male-based gender organisations reported collaborative relationships with womens organisations (Kimball et al. n.d., 12). The politics of alliance is increasingly vital, as funding for gender equality and womens rights is increasingly threatened. R.W. Connell argues that an alliance approach allows these resources to be used, and helps in defining a position of dignity
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for the men as well as the women involved in gender reform (2003, 26). Pro-feminist men working on gender equality with womens movements is an example of what Steven Barkan (1979) refers to as within movement collaboration / that is, it is a process which involves protest groups and organisations, with relatively aligned causes and goals, engag[ing] in joint planning and action (cited in Beamish and Leubers 2009, 647). Exploring the diversity of alliances and strategies men are using within their organisations is significant in developing a more complete account of within movement collaboration between pro-feminist men and womens rights networks. In the following sections, I examine some of the views of participants in my research on key aspects of this work. First, however, I briefly introduce the research methods, and the five men who participated.
My research
Mens pro-feminist organising encompasses a wide range of activities, from developing advocacy campaigns, delivering training to men/boys on gender equality, engaged in policy reform, or developing educational tools. In my research, I aimed to explore the experience of five pro-feminist men from different contexts, to discuss some of the issues, tensions, and potential for partnership with feminists raised in the last section. I interviewed five men over a period of four months in 2011. Some of the interviews were carried out face-to-face, while others used Skype. All quotations included here come from these interviews. Due to the relative infancy of the field of masculinity and development, it was challenging to recruit participants who have had experience working in partnership with women feminists/networks. I identified one participant through prior work with him on a training resource on masculinity. Through professional networks, I obtained the contact information for four other potential research participants, two of whom accepted. Upon reviewing my research synopsis, one participant recommended two further participants. All the men involved in the research are currently working in the field of gender justice/gender equality (in areas including anti-violence, sexual and reproductive health, and economic justice). All of them have extensive experience of working in organisations dedicated to gender equality, gender justice and/or womens rights, and all also had experience in building partnerships and alliances with womens rights networks. In this article I use pseudonyms for all participants. I profile them briefly below, drawing on their own accounts of themselves and their lives, given to open our discussions in interview. Matt Matt comes from what he sees as a privileged background, and grew up in a suburb outside Toronto, Canada. After completing high school, he attended Queens
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University in Canada to read law, hoping to become a tax lawyer, However, this aim was displaced by his increasing interest in social justice and gender issues. After graduating from university, he worked for an HIV/AIDS organisation and hospice in Toronto for five years. Matt then continued in the non-profit world, and ran a youth shelter for another five years. He has considerable experience in various different social justice issues: poverty, housing, masculinity, and gender. Matt has been Executive Director at an non-government organisation (NGO) dedicated to promoting boys and mens role for anti-violence. The organisation is now functioning across the globe, sparking local anti-violence initiatives. Chris Chris is a native of South Africa, where he now lives and works. He considers his upbringing there to have been strongly affected by white middle-class heterosexual norms. As a youth, Chris was active in anti-apartheid activism. He moved to the United States as a youth when his family relocated there. Chris studied at Berkeley University, where he worked on an anarchist newspaper collective. He worked in the United States on anti-imperialist activism, and as a voluntary counsellor for men who were perpetrators of violence against women. Chris returned to South Africa and now works for a leading non-profit organisation working with mixed race populations. He focuses on advocacy, policy reform, and programming with boys and men for gender justice and the promotion of womens human rights. Daniel Daniel is based in Brazil. His background is in NGO work addressing masculinity, development, and anti-violence. Some of this work was done in different countries of Central America and Africa. At the age of 18, as an engineering student, Daniel participated in non-formal mens groups on masculinity and sexuality. After completing his engineering degree, he turned his focus to psychology, but was fascinated with issues of masculinity, and therefore went on to do a Master s in Gender Studies in Rio de Janeiro. For the past ten years, Daniel has worked with a leading research, programming, and advocacy NGO focusing on engaging men to work on gender equality. He is now completing his PhD dissertation on masculinity, gender, and development. Arasu Arasu lives in New York City. He is a strong advocate for child rights, and has extensive experience in grassroots programming in India. In particular, he worked in organisations supporting women to improve their political representation and human rights. Arasu also gained extensive experience working with boys and young men specifically on challenging dominant ideas about masculinity and male identity, and promoting gender justice. Arasu went on to work as an advisor for UNICEF.
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Rahim Rahim was born in Pakistan, where he grew up in a higher caste family. He is in his thirties. Rahim now lives in Pakistan. He has a broad background in social justice issues, having started his working life focusing on child labour, where gender issues became increasingly evident to him. He continued in the development sector, working for the International Labour Organization and Plan International. Rahim says he wanted to focus on challenging the structural causes of inequality, and moved from the NGO sector to work for the Pakistani police for many years, facilitating gender sensitivity workshops for both men and women police officers.
Rationales for working in alliance with womens movements

In the course of their work, research participants had gained various different experiences of working with wide-ranging womens rights networks. A strong consensus emerged among them on the importance of these alliances. Arasu described the diversity of his engagement in India with womens rights networks:
Ive always worked with womens movements / from the village committees to municipal committees. I worked on domestic violence. I cant exist without a handy relationship with [the] womens movement.
When asked how alliances could address resistance to mens participation in gender justice on the part of women feminists and womens rights networks, the term resistance itself was called into question. Chris was well aware of womens complex and mixed perceptions about men working within the feminist movement and saw these as entirely legitimate: Yes, but I wouldnt use the word resistance, I would say legitimate concern, curiosity. Rahim was very clear in his support for the feminist and womens movement, and the impossibility of separating mens pro-feminist organising from the womens movement.
I always worked when the work was housed in the womens movement. That was my strategy. The work, which I did, was either with child rights or womens movement. I didnt have enough space to separate this work . . . so my focus is how we can work while being within the womens movement. Once you start looking at this work as separate, then I have a fundamental disagreement there. This is all gender equality work. I have issues on the term gender, what about transgender? When I started in funding, I would always give contracts to womens rights organisations.
All participants explicitly valued alliances with womens rights networks, and found them central to their work in pro-feminist organising. Matt reflected on the importance
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of engaging with womens rights networks, seeing the work of pro-feminist men as political action which comes under the umbrella of the larger feminist movement:
Partnerships with womens organisations are a fundamental piece of our work . . . [there is] nothing we do here [that] we can do without working in partnerships without womens rights organisations.
Matt went on to stress the importance of the process of partnership building with womens rights networks:
Its absolutely critical. If you dont, youll never change the mind of people who resist. More importantly on the positive side, its a far more compelling case to funders, donors, and policy makers when you approach them in partnerships. We need to do work with women. We need to do work with men. Its not either/or, its not one at the expense of the other, but its together.
Alliance-building and collaboration between pro-feminist men and women feminists/ womens rights networks can take many forms. While it is important to gauge mens perceptions of the value of alliance-building, actions speak louder than words / hence, we must assess actions not just well-intentioned discourse of mens pro-feminist organisations (Messner 1997). What, then, does this co-operation and collaboration look like? In his research into masculinity and rape, Rus Ervin Funk (1993) explored some of the ways in which men can choose to operate in ways which support women, rather than competing against them or undermining them. He points out that they may consult with womens groups before initiating their campaigns, can consciously avoid competing with womens organisations over funding or other resources, and can also focus on building strong lines of communication and trust (ibid., 125). Rus Ervin Funk also highlighted the importance of pro-feminist organisations forming relationships with womens organisations from the very beginning. When I discussed this view with men in my own research, the prevalent view was that this is critical. Chris said:
It would be politically astute to do it from the beginning. Its hard to build relationships with credibility / you cant say no its not convenient for us right now . . . so for us we would struggle to get donor funds if we didnt take these relationships seriously . . .
Daniel, similarly, spoke about the importance of engaging with womens rights networks from the beginning:
For us, it was interesting, since the beginning . . . we were interested in having women participating on the discussions about young men, for us it was very important to have their perceptions and input. How can we promote a critical reflection in terms of gender equality with young men, and for this reason weve had womens groups on board.
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Principles of collaboration and alliance-building

Matt stressed the importance of understanding context and its influence on alliancebuilding, making each relationship unique. However, he also pointed out that there is a range of general principles which hold in all cases:
It looks different in every relationship, whats the context of it, whats happening, and why youre approaching each other is always unique. But at the same time, theres things we come to it every time, some of those things include basic stuff but it has to translate into action; recognising your equal partners, recognising that more often than not womens organisations weve partnered with have been doing this work a lot longer than we have . . .
Research participants discussed the need to go where the energy is, in terms of finding womens organisations which are keen to partner and collaborate with pro-feminist mens organisations. Matt spoke of increasing interest and acceptance of male engagement for gender equality:
Whats more effective is doing good partnership work with organisations that are interested and willing and see the need to start to engage men and demonstrating the results of the partnerships and letting the results of partnership speak for themselves, this is more effective than 1,000 panels me sitting on . . . I think if there are changes happening, its those pockets of resistance are getting smaller and smaller . . .
Strategies for collaborating with womens rights networks

Of all the participants, Chris had the most extensive experience in building formal strategies of collaboration with womens rights networks. He pointed to a challenge in ensuring the priorities of their womens rights partners are well understood by staff at all levels, seeing this as vital for their work in mobilising boys and men for gender justice. Chriss organisation involves representatives of womens rights organisations on its Board of Directors, and, in addition, employs women within the organisation in equal numbers with men.
We have 40 per cent women staff, at senior level its 50 per cent women, and our Board of Directors we have a standing commitment to 50 per cent women / representing womens rights organisations / and thats always been the case. Weve always stuck to this commitment to the Board when we develop new initiatives or written articles/reports / we pretty much always ask womens rights colleagues to review them and propose changes. So all of our campaign materials were reviewed by a range of womens rights organisations, the same with our other campaigns, and many of the articles we write . . . we participate very very actively in partnerships with womens rights organisations. We co-train together, which builds trust amongst the organisations.
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Interestingly, although it is seen as important to employ women on the staff of his organisation, Chris highlighted that there still remains a need to consult with womens rights organisations in order to get an accurate picture of womens interests and priorities. He mentioned other strategies which aim to enhance his organisations ability to better understand the needs and priorities of local womens rights networks:
If the organisation doesnt have a meaningful engagement and dialogue with womens rights organisations within [its] local context and [it isnt] informed of the priorities of the womens rights organisations, thats a challenge. It could be an interesting exercise to ask [our staff] to identify the top five priorities of womens rights organisations in terms of HIV, or gender-based violence. I would bet that our staff cant answer that question as well as they should, even though we do have checks and balances in terms of accountability. We dont work day-in-day-out alongside with womens rights organisations. Where we have implemented joint projects . . . you drive to the workshop at night in the b and b [bed and breakfast] you have dinner together in the most rural areas, [but] you rarely get into the complexity and nuances of the work. I dont think we do that enough. Were now putting together an orientation process for new staff / whereby you shadow and spend time with practitioners from womens rights organisations and shelters, so that theyre more intimately aware of their needs and priorities of womens rights organisations.
Matt reflects on the diversity of partnership and alliance-building with womens rights networks, stating:
I would say literally, in terms of formal partnerships theres two dozen organisations weve formally partnered with . . . more broadly than that, [the number of organisations] that weve allied or supported would be 50 /60 . . . different organisations from around the world, from UN Women to on-the-ground-women[s] shelters in Brazil . . . likely more than 50 /60 organisations.
Conversations like this illustrate the numerous strategies pro-feminist men are using. The next section takes a deeper look at the politics of space and voice facing profeminist men when working in solidarity with feminist womens movements. Patriarchal power relations inherently privilege the voices and experiences of men. Pro-feminist men need to collaborate with womens rights movements and feminists in ways which challenge this male privilege and give women the space to speak.
The politics of mens engagement in feminist space: to speak or not to speak

Development and humanitarian policymakers and practitioners are well-acquainted with the notion that social change requires women and men to be able to collect and discuss shared priorities and agendas, and that different issues come up in groups consisting of men-only, women-only, and mixed-sex participants. Women-only spaces have been at the core of the feminist movement, and are an essential step on the way to imagining and ultimately creating a world where there is an alternative to
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patriarchy (Ruby 2003, 15). How can pro-feminist men enter feminist spaces and operate within the feminist movement, without dominating these spaces, as male privilege cannot truly be relinquished? (Pease 2010). How can men meaningfully engage without intruding or dominating? The ability of pro-feminist men to listen to women feminists is a key challenge, as men are used to entering any discussion and automatically being heard (Crowe 2011, 52). In my research, Rahim stated a desire for men-only spaces, and shared spaces between men and women in his masculinities work. Other participants suggested that a key challenge in shared / mixed-sex / spaces was the ability to listen from womens rights networks within working relationships. Chris reflected on his experience in navigating shared space:
. . . weve had to do quite a lot of work with our staff to get through feelings of indignation when theyve been in meetings with womens rights groups / in some cases theyve explicitly been told to be quiet, or this is not your space, youre here to listen. Weve had to do lots of internal education / lets understand whats going on there, how to respond to it. If you dont do that work carefully, you can end up in a situation where theres a reservoir of feeling hurt [or] surprised [for] the staff. So thats a challenge as well.
Daniel spoke of the challenge of listening for pro-feminist men:

Theres a moment where mens groups are saying I have my own agenda and we must respect differences and to listen to each other, and sometimes we see problems relating to men and women in terms of listening. There were some groups [which found it] difficult to accept men in the scenario, [and] in some moments . . . its very difficult [for men] to listen, you are guilty for any imbalances because youre a man. We need to learn to deal with.
Matt stressed the importance of recognising that as men doing this work we have to be conscious of privilege and power and space were taking up. This self-reflexivity on the part of pro-feminist men is essential for shared space to remain feminist, and ensure womens voices remain the backbone of feminist discourse.
Building solidarity across social movements

In this article, mens pro-feminist organising has been explored as a political project. It is important for the range of issues dealt with to be wide-ranging. Some commentators have noted a tendency for pro-feminist men to focus on male sexual violence to the exclusion of other issues, but / while the gravity and significance of this particular issue is undeniable / the issue needs to be seen in the context of patriarchal power relations and dealt with as one critical aspect of a larger agenda of social change. Michael Messner argues that a tendency amongst pro-feminist men
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to see sexual violence as the issue tends to lead activists away from the engagement with structured inequality within social institutions such as workplaces, families and the state (1997, 55). All the participants in my research considered their work in pro-feminist organising as an inherently political project. Yet / as they highlighted / for some men, who are focusing on a particular aspect of their lives / which is often concerned with the private sphere of marriage, family, and intimacy / it is a challenge to see the work they do as connected to the wider political project of attaining gender equality throughout all social institutions. For example, Daniel commented:
I dont understand when some groups of men say, were not political. We are political all the time. Were working in a formal way on private issues, but sexuality, violence, and fatherhood are public issues . . . and political issues. How can we move from Thursday night meetings in a church to public policy? This is our major challenge right now. There is a moment, and its quite interesting to see over the last ten years, when we started those mens groups it wasnt clear what was the political agenda, we didnt really have one. Its much more . . . something related to personal.
Daniel stressed the inherent political nature of masculinities work, and pointed to a paradigm shift in mens pro-feminist organising as a political project:
When we started to organise different mens groups and networks, its necessary to say very clearly about our proposals, and our objectives, our relations with womens groups . . . its very interesting to sit and drink together to talk about life, but we need an agenda. For me, its not a mens agenda, we need a gender equality agenda.
Participants considered a multi-issue approach to broadening support for womens rights issues to be important. This echoes the views of social change theorists including Michael Flood: [since] anti-violence is fuelled by and itself perpetuates gender inequalities (and other forms of injustice), anti-violence work should be situated within a broader project of gender justice (2001, 45). Chris gave a concrete example of a multi-issue coalition in action, which shows clearly how working in this way can broaden support for women s rights issues:
We are an active partner with ATHENA (Advancing Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Global Response to HIV/AIDS) network, which is a global network looking at gender and HIV particularly working with HIV-positive women, and creating policy dialogues for them. We participate very actively in that. We are a member of the Shokumesa campaign in South Africa, which is a womens rights campaign (based on monitoring and evaluation of our genderbased violence laws in South Africa). Were also members of the One in Nine campaign, which is another womens rights campaign. Were squarely situated in a broader network of gender justice organisations.
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In his interview, in turn, Daniel reflected on the need to work across social movements, not solely with feminist groups, but with other groups interested in social justice, with the goal of attaining equality for all:
For me, in terms of the political agenda / its not only political agendas with feminist groups, but there might be other agendas that might be [complementary and interesting to] . . . the mens groups, I have called attention particularly to LGBT groups and the childrens rights movement . . . we need to establish a dialogue in order to advance our agendas. If I have an agenda on fatherhood for me, its of course related to women, motherhood, and childrens rights. For me, its kind of the same . . . we know we have many advances in the last 30 years, but if we want to go beyond that, we need to work together, in terms of gender-based violence, fatherhood, employment, sexual exploitation, etc.
Yet the reality is that often work still takes place in isolation, without such a wideranging analysis and programme of action. Arasu, whose background was working on childrens rights, expressed his regret that often joint work does not take place when it should: what has happened is that weve created so many silos.
Creating a bigger pie: his and her funding?

Not surprisingly, participants expressed their anxieties about the issue of resourcing pro-feminist work with men. Ultimately, they were concerned to prevent a diversion of funds from womens organisations. There is not much data available about spending on pro-feminist mens initiatives as compared to womens rights initiatives from feminist womens organisations. This is obviously a problem, because it makes a constructive dialogue on resource equity impossible. However, it is clear that recent interest in the part of donors in mens pro-feminist work threatens to divert the small stream of resources available for womens organisations. While male-led initiatives may be understood as part of the feminist movement, this does not prevent competition for donor funds amongst mens profeminist organising and womens rights networks. While there seems to be agreement in raising additional funds for pro-feminist mens organising, there is little agreement on where this funding is going to come from. Daniel commented on this competition for funds:
You have womens groups and mens groups, and its like a competition for the same resources, money, and financial resources. Its a struggle point. For mens different groups its not easy for us to share resources with womens groups, I would say over the last ten years, working with men is the flavour of the month. So, every foundation were interested in this work . . . Womens groups are now getting less funding and resources than they are in the past. It was generating a sort of competition.
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Of course, funding choices are inherently political in themselves, and choosing to resource womens organisations in a male-dominated context is transformative in a way that resourcing an organisation run by men is not. This can sometimes be lost in discussions which focus on the need to work with both sexes to get transformation. Daniel commented:
From my perspective its not working with men or women, its working towards gender equality, and sometimes it makes sense working with just men, just women, or men and women together.
In a male-dominated world, too, pro-feminist mens organisations may be positioned better to attract financing: men are able to draw on their and other mens institutional privilege to attract levels of support and funding rarely granted to women (Landsberg 2000, 15). This patriarchal dividend of men (Connell 1997, 79) inherently privileges pro-feminist men over women feminists in attaining funding, resulting in less financial security and autonomy for womens rights networks. Chris elaborated on dealing with what he saw as a financial crisis facing his organisations womens rights partners:
We have tried to be available during financial crisis amongst our partner organisations and fundraise on their behalf. We give clear statements when weve been asked to, you know, weve spoken out against organisations that do unprincipled work with men and boys. Were seen as being at a kind of ideological level to be reasonably credible.
Matt demonstrates an understanding that pro-feminist mens expectations of womens rights networks and the response of womens organisations to them must be realistic. Clearly, anti-feminist mens groups give a bad name to mens organisations in general, and fuel suspicions of men who profess to be searching for funding for gender equality work. Participants were insistent that pro-feminist men need to be vocal in their opposition to anti-feminist groups, making their political commitment to gender equality as explicit as possible. They also need to understand the source of suspicion, and tolerate it: Feminist men should not inappropriately define feminist goals and strategies in isolation from women, and should not expect ongoing praise, reassurance, discipline or thanks from women (Kahane 1998, 230). To counter these suspicions, pro-feminist men interviewed felt that they and their colleagues need to be explicit in not diverting funding which would otherwise have gone to womens organisations, but instead to create additional funding for gender equality work with boys and men. Some participants spoke of the importance of identifying clear responsibilities, and drawing up a single project plan, to ensure resource equity with womens rights networks. Chris stated his view that we need to do advocacy and grant writing together to make sure the sector is adequately funded,
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rather than blaming them [womens rights organisations] for not having their own funds. Arasu echoed this view:
Ive done a lot of work with UN Women / we work together to define the strategy. If you have this, womens rights organisations will know these guys arent running away with our resources. Its very much working together as true partners. The [purpose of the] whole masculinity field, . . . is to strengthen the feminist domain. Ultimately my mission is to promote gender equality.
Ultimately, as Matt pointed out, there is a need for a bigger pie for gender equality work overall. The need to create additional funds for work with boys and men emerged as a central challenge:
We enter all these relationships recognising the resource question, and we will be advocates and allies with you [womens rights organisations] in pushing for not cutting smaller pieces of the same pie, but making a bigger pie, that also includes masculinity work in the context of violence against women, and primary prevention work with men and boys.
Conclusion
While pro-feminist organising must have at its core a politicised and feminist approach, it can be an exciting and affirming process for men who support the cause of gender equality. The experience of these men confirmed R.W. Connells observation that:
Gender equality is an undertaking for men that can be creative and joyful. It is a project that realizes high principles of social justice, produces better lives for the women whom men care about, and will produce better lives for the majority of men in the long run. This can and should be a project that generates energy, that finds expression in everyday life and the arts as well as informal policies, and that can illuminate all aspects of mens lives. (2005, 1819)
Looking ahead, the field of mens pro-feminist organising shows no sign of slowing, and is likely to build in momentum. Prioritising alliance-building which is authentic, longterm, and rooted in power-sharing with womens rights networks will be essential in enhancing solidarity and to ensure mens engagement remains feminist at the core.
Kate Bojin is a Gender Equality Consultant, and Founder of Girls Rights Now! Initiative, which seeks to empower youth to challenge gender stereotypes. Postal address: 57 Charles St. West, Unit 501, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2X1, Canada. Email: kate.c.bojin@gmail.com
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Gender & Development Vol. 21, No. 2, 2013