The rise of men and masculinities: Progress for gender and development?

In the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in a ‘men and masculinities’ approach to gender and development issues, and a focus on men’s issues as being in need of specific attention. Moreover, in the last few years there has been an explosion of NGOs and networks that are charging ahead with programmes and interventions aimed at men. While it appears logical that if gender and development is genuinely about gender relations, i.e. the power relations and inequalities between men and women, then we cannot afford to work with only women; nevertheless tensions arise when we explore exactly how this approach might take shape. The presentation discussed some of the arguments that underlie the masculinities approach and, in relation to the issue of male violence, asked what men are being asked to give up, and what is being offered in the way of alternatives.

• Chair: Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň, Head of Research Department, Institute of International Relations, Prague

Dr Polly Wilding is the Academic Group Leader for the International Development teaching and research team, as well as the Director of the Centre for Global Development (CGD) at the University of Leeds. She is interested in the gendered intersections between different forms of violence that affect urban communities, in particular the linkages between urban and private violence, in the context of Latin America. She has researched how the threat and reality of violence impact on the rights and everyday experiences of marginalised groups who live with consistently high levels of insecurity. She has worked with NGOs in Latin America that focus on domestic and urban violence, as well as Northern-based NGOs that work with solidarity models of development assistance. At the University of Leeds she teaches, among others, the courses Gender and Violence, and Gender, Globalisation and Development. She is the author of the book Negotiating Boundaries: Gender, Violence and Transformation in Brazil, published by Palgrave in 2012.

You can download the invitation here.