Gender Dynamics in Men's Behavior Change Programs: Exploring Men's Gendering Over Women Practitioners

Capability Levels: Evolving and Established

There are many reasons why social workers seek out specialised work in Men's Behaviour Change Programs. Mostly because we all want male violence against women and children to end. However, each year nearly 2 women per week across Australia are murdered by a current or former male partner due to family violence. These figures are not changing from year to year, and the brutal reality is that men will murder women at the same rate in the coming year. This is a highly gendered issue and the need for skilled social workers to address gender injustices in our family violence responses to male perpetrators has never been more necessary.

By discussing male privilege and entitlement and the many ways all genders re-produce patriarchal behaviours and attitudes, social workers can challenge and address the possibility of reinforcing harmful gender and power-based messages in our services and daily practices. These conversations can be complex and require social work skills such as reflexive practice and theory informed approaches to deepen our understanding of the ways in which we can join together to address male violence against women and children.

This is NOT a men's only space. This interactive workshop is for social workers of all genders.

Who should attend?

This workshop is suitable for social workers who have some experience in family and domestic violence work and who are already working in perpetrator interventions, or who wish to pursue a career in men’s behaviour change programs.

Event Structure:

Introduction (10 minutes)

Learning Session 1: Women’s Experiences (20-30 minutes)

• Discussing patriarchal privilege and structural sexism.
• Highlighting research by Pease, Flood, and Apps & Gregory.

Activity 1: Men Who Kill Women (30-40 minutes)

• Emotional exploration of victim-perpetrator dynamics.

Learning Session 2: Accountability (20 minutes)

• Emphasising individual and collective responsibilities.
• Insights from Flood and Macomber on gender justice.

Activity 2: I Am Not Sexist, but… (30 minutes)

• Using Chapin’s Continuum for personal reflection and discussion.

Wrap Up and Reflection (15 minutes)

• Commitment to combat sexism and envisioning gender-positive futures.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• Explore into male perpetrators program structures, unfair work distribution and of the complexities the role of the women co-facilitator
• Examine best practice principles in identifying the impact of the mixed gender co-facilitation team on the change process for male perpetrators
• Actively incorporate the issues faced by female co-facilitators into the mixed gender teamwork model so that we minimise collusion with oppressive gendered messages in our work with male perpetrators

This Workshop is not recorded, however, you will have access to materials and resources on AASW Online Learning for 4 weeks after the completion of the workshop.

AASW Credential: Mental Health, Clinical SW