It has been 13 years since Working With Men was set-up to produce and sell a set of posters[1], targeted at those working with boys and young men. It has been 8 years since we first published Working With Men as a journal to reflect developing practice. It has been 6 years since we started our own regular training programme for those wanting to develop work with men. It has been 3 years since masculinity and issues related to boys and men have become more commonplace and in some respects mainstream. This timeline reflects significant events in the growth of Working With Men, but it also reflects a change in the way the issues have been perceived within the media, statutory and voluntary services and more recently within government.
In 1985 masculinity was a concern of only the youth and schools sector[2]. Interest stemmed from the steady growth of girlswork in youth services and challenging sexism and the underachievement of girls within schools. Motivations for developing work with boys hinged around changing boys attitudes towards girls and women. In 1990, criminal justice settings began to question why more than 95% of prisoners were men and what bearing this may have on offences such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and offences committed by adolescent boys[3]. Probation Officers began to show an interest in the link between masculinity and offending. In 1993, the Chief Medical Officer dedicated a chapter to men's health in his annual report, inviting Health Authorities to address the health needs and tackle the risk-taking behaviours of men[4]. In 1995, the Department of Education issued figures that indicated that boys were underachieving in most exams results, and particularly in GCSE's and 'A levels[5]. In 1996, IPPR published their report, 'Men and their Children' which reflected a growing interest in issues related to fatherhood and a questioning of the deficit model used when talking about fathers ("they don't do this .... they don't do that")[6].
The focus of our work has tended to reflect this broadening and growing interest in boys, young men and men generally, and is based on a number of working principles, which include:
a) that developing work needs to be practice-led, rather than ideology or theory-led;
b) that models of practice will only work if men's needs are at the centre of what we do. So, for example, even within an issue such as domestic violence, an understanding of men's violence needs to include their loss of control, the wider socialisation of men as well as men's sexism and abuse of power;
c) that we address the issues related to both resistance's 'in men' and 'towards men'. So, for example, within Men's Health, we have to look at the decision making processes that stop men from using primary healthcare services as well as the negative attitudes, stereotypes and fears that primary healthcare workers may have of men.
d) that we underpin our work with an understanding of masculinities. Regardless of whether the issue is fatherhood, sexual health, underachievement or criminality, we are interested in why boys and men do what they do, and what we can do about it.
While we have maintained our focus on masculinity, the context we have been working in has changed enormously. Thirteen years ago, there were very few workers (let alone organisations) developing work with boys from an understanding of masculinity. Academic and policy-based interest in masculinity has led to a substantial increase in the number of initiatives being taken with boys and men - especially in the last three or four years. We have in response moved from highlighting the needs of men, and training workers (when invited), to an organisation that carries out a broad range of services. Training still goes on, but rather than being asked "why should we do this?" we are being asked "how do we do this?"
We are now wondering whether we have a new role. Are there enough initiators? Should we specialise in areas where we think there is most potential?. Should we go for strategically smart projects and initiatives or are we still looking at a false dawn of interest, and need to continue to go where we are invited?
Not that we have had a lot of time to reflect on these questions, with so many project to work on. From our schools and youthwork origins, we have become a much broader-based organisation. We now carry out research, investigations; reviews, evaluations and consultancies; training (both tailor-made and in-house); advocacy work; we publish our quarterly journal Working With Men and other practice-based books, including our advocacy series and finally, where we started, high-quality and very useful games, pack, posters and other materials for workers developing their own practice.
The emerging themes in the last three years have been fatherhood; underachievement; health (sexual and general); black men; employment; violence; literacy and relationships with women. Settings have included health services, schools, Colleges, criminal justice agencies, youth projects, employment agencies and childcare organisations. This progress report reflects this broad range of issues; settings and groups of men, but the reader is encouraged to remember that it is masculinity and its impact on men and the developing practice with these men that is still at the core of what we do.
1. Our original Boyswork Posters are still available, 4, A1 black and white, for just £6.00.
2. See Lloyd T.J. Work With Boys. national Youth Bureau, Leicester 1985. Copies of this are still available from us for £4.50 (including p & p).
3. See for example Home Office. Criminal Statistics England and Wales. Home Office, 1990 and
Newburn, T. and Stanko, E. A. just Boys Doing Business? Men Masculinities and Crime. Routledge, London, 1994.
4. On the State of The Public Health (the annual report of the Chief Medical Officer of The Department of Health for the year 1992), HMSO, London. 1993.
5. Department of Education and Employment Figures for England. HMSO, London, 1996.
6. Burgess A, and Ruxton S. Men and Their Children (Proposals for Public Policy). Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) 1996.
