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

该博士后奖学金将建立在esrc资助的博士研究的基础上，该研究审查了使男性和男孩参与对妇女暴力的初级预防的努力。这包括对在该领域发展中发挥关键作用的从业人员、活动人士和学者进行14次专家信息提供者访谈，并与青年男子大学运动队进行8次焦点小组讨论，讨论他们对预防暴力运动的看法。研究发现，如果我们真的想结束针对女性的暴力行为，就迫切需要与男性和男孩接触，围绕性别规范和不平等问题建立批判意识（Freire 1972）。然而，尽管人们越来越认识到这种努力的重要性，但在英国，这种努力仍然非常不发达（Flood 2019）。因此，该研究金将审查扩大这类工作的可能性，方法是将研究应用于商业部门，并探讨企业在鼓励男子和男孩公开谈论对妇女的暴力行为方面可以发挥的潜在作用。鉴于“我也是”（#MeToo）运动所强调的，性骚扰和其他形式的虐待在工作场所仍然普遍存在，而且主要是男性犯下的，因此，开展此类努力的必要性再紧迫不过了。此外，吉列最近的“最好的男人”（the Best Men Can Be）广告引起的关注表明，在当代英国社会，围绕男性气质的辩论是多么相关，并提供了一个例子，说明企业可以如何为改变人们的态度和行为做出贡献。越来越多的人呼吁企业和雇主采取更多措施来认识和解决家庭暴力等问题，这些问题很可能是他们自己的员工所经历和实施的（Westmarland 2017）。例如，沃达丰（Vodafone）最近成为首家推出一项政策的公司，为遭受家暴的员工提供10天的带薪休假。企业也有很大的潜力帮助解决问题的根源，并首先防止对妇女的暴力行为，例如通过发起它们自己的运动、方案和培训。这有助于在组织内部建立性别平等，解决工作场所的性别歧视、厌女症和性骚扰问题，并向更广泛的公众宣传反暴力信息。因此，该研究金将鼓励商业部门的合作伙伴思考他们如何能够做到这一点，我的研究将帮助他们制定有效吸引男性和男孩参与这一进程的方法。除了在商界传播我的博士研究成果外，该奖学金还将通过与商业伙伴的四个案例研究产生新的知识。在这些组织中，将与相关的有影响力的人物进行访谈，并与他们的一些男性员工进行焦点小组讨论，以探讨企业目前正在采取哪些措施来防止对妇女的暴力行为，以及参与者对他们还可以采取哪些措施来吸引男性和男孩参与其中的看法。这样做的目的是通过一种支持女权主义的行动研究方法，帮助鼓动和将这种努力嵌入案例研究组织，并更广泛地融入商业部门。这项研究将有助于我们从理论和经验上理解在企业内部开展变革性暴力预防工作的可能性和障碍，男性如何在这些组织背景下再现父权关系，以及如何抵制这种关系。该奖学金将提供宝贵的职业发展机会，包括使我能够在学术期刊上发表基于研究的高质量文章；我在学术、实践和政策方面的网络不断深化和扩大；以及我在研究和教学方面的经验和技能的提高。

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.