Being involved

Having looked at the routes into involvement, we now turn to the experiences of men once they are involved in men's activism to end violence against women. We look at the ways in which men are supported to do this work - primarily through women feminist activists and practitioners - but also to a lesser extent from other men in a range of settings (as friends, as other men working to end violence against women). As well as considering the support and the positive aspects of involvement, it is also important to make visible and discuss the obstacles or struggles that men might face and any problems or limitations of men being involved in this work. Obstacles and struggles can be located in the personal, the professional and/or the political. Even though we at times try to separate these analytically in the book, these spaces, in reality, often overlap. Often, the interviewees described criticisms as coming from multiple directions, from women and women's groups as well as from other men and men's groups. Just as women emerged as very important in men becoming involved in this work, they were the primary support that men talked about as important to sustaining their involvement. Many of the men we interviewed talked about extremely influential relationships with women that they had longstanding friendships with. In the previous chapter we talked about how women as friends or family were very influential in becoming involved. This part of the chapter is about developing and sustaining that involvement; the focus shifts away from friends and family generally and towards women working in the feminist violence against women movement.