Feminism, masculinity politics and the human services

Feminists in the human services have drawn attention to the prevalence of sexist attitudes and practices in social welfare and, female human service workers have developed interventions and policies aimed at overcoming sexism. The contemporary male radical social work literature neglects analyses of masculinity and practice with men. There are a variety of ways of classifying the men’s movement. The chapter identifies four distinct approaches: men’s rights, mythopoetics, men’s liberation and pro-feminism. These four trends have been the source of considerable conflict in men’s politics from its beginning. A key argument of the men’s rights movement is that men are unfairly blamed by women and feminism. The emphasis of much of the men’s rights’ response to feminism is that women are equally responsible for the problems in the world and the issues confronting them. Profeminism for men involves a sense of responsibility to our own and other men’s sexism, and a commitment to work with women to end men’s violence.