Engaging men and boys in preventing violence against women: Opportunities within the business sector

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This Postdoctoral Fellowship will build upon ESRC-funded PhD research which examined efforts to engage men and boys in the primary prevention of violence against women. This involved fourteen expert-informant interviews with practitioners, activists, and academics playing a key role in the development of the field, and eight focus groups with young men's university sports teams to discuss their views on violence prevention campaigns. The study found that engagement with men and boys to build critical consciousness (Freire 1972) around issues of gender norms and inequalities is urgently needed if we are serious about ending violence against women. However, such efforts remain significantly underdeveloped in England, despite increasing recognition of its importance (Flood 2019). This fellowship will therefore examine the possibilities for the expansion of work of this kind by applying the research to the business sector, and exploring the potential role that businesses can play in encouraging men and boys to speak out about violence against women. The need for such efforts could not be more urgent, given the continued pervasiveness of sexual harassment and other forms of abuse in the workplace that the #MeToo movement has highlighted, perpetrated predominantly by men. Furthermore, the attention that Gillette's recent 'The Best Men Can Be' campaign has garnered demonstrates how relevant debates around masculinity are in contemporary English society, and provides an example of how businesses can contribute to attempts to change attitudes and behaviours.There are growing calls for businesses and employers to do more to recognise and address issues such as domestic abuse, which are likely to be experienced - and perpetrated - by their own employees (Westmarland 2017). For instance, Vodafone recently became the first company to introduce a policy of offering 10 days of paid leave to employees who experience domestic abuse. Considerable potential also exists for businesses to help to address the roots of the problem and prevent violence against women from being perpetrated in the first place, such as by instigating their own campaigns, programmes and training. This could contribute to broader efforts to build gender equality within their organisations and tackle sexism, misogyny, and sexually harassment in the workplace, as well as promoting an anti-violence message to the wider public. The fellowship will therefore encourage partners in the business sector to reflect on how they may be able to do this, and my research will help them to develop methods of effectively engaging men and boys in the process.As well as disseminating my PhD research within the business sector, the fellowship will also generate new knowledge through four case studies with business partners. Within these organisations interviews will be conducted with relevant influential figures and focus groups carried out with some of their male employees, in order to explore what the business is currently doing to prevent violence against women, and participants' views about what more they could do to engage men and boys in this. This is with the aim of helping to instigate and embed such efforts into the case study organisations, and into the business sector more broadly, through a pro-feminist action research approach. The research will help to build our theoretical and empirical understanding of possibilities and barriers to developing transformative violence prevention work within businesses, how men reproduce patriarchal relations within these organisational contexts, and how this can be resisted.The fellowship will provide invaluable career development opportunities, including enabling me to establish a track record in the publication of high quality articles for academic journals based on the research; the deepening and broadening of my networks within academia, practice, and policy; and the advancement of my experience and skills in research and teaching.