Becoming involved

Why and how some men become active in speaking out about men's violence against women is a question which arouses considerable interest and curiosity. Yet it is a topic there has been relatively little research on to date, even though critical studies on men and masculinities has grown considerably as a field of research since the turn of the century. Where research has been carried out in this area, it has largely been based on contexts such as the United States and Australia rather than on European countries. Most of the data within this chapter comes from the interview sample, although we draw on the survey data where relevant. In line with previous research outlined in Chapter 1, in nearly all cases (though with some notable exceptions where men were catapulted into the work following a family tragedy), men's involvement was a process rather than a particular epiphany, and the men were able to trace their involvement through a number of influences in their child and adult lives. First, we will discuss our survey findings on why it is so important that men take a public stance against violence against women. There are a number of potential benefits to men taking action against men's violence towards women - for women and girls, for wider society and for men and boys themselves (Jewkes, Flood and Lang, 2015). We asked our survey respondents about what they felt the main positive outcomes were.