Ericka Kimball

Context, Challenges, and Tensions in Global Efforts to Engage Men in the Prevention of Violence against Women An Ecological Analysis

As gender-based violence prevention programs around the world increasingly include efforts to engage men and boys as antiviolence allies, both the profound benefits and the inherent complexities of these efforts are emerging. Acknowledging and exploring tensions associated with engaging men is an important element of thoughtfully fostering men’s antiviolence ally movements so as to both respectfully invite men into antiviolence work and create effective, gender-equitable prevention programming. To this end, this study presents descriptive findings regarding challenges associated with men’s engagement programming from in-depth interviews with twenty-nine representatives of organizations that engage men and boys in preventing violence against women and girls in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America. Programs reported negotiating complex issues related to gender, the intersectional nature of men’s identities, and establishing legitimacy and sustainability within communities while maintaining ideological focus and consistency. Additionally, programs reported that these tensions manifest across ecological layers of analysis, and impact both the participation of individual men and the programs’ experiences in community and national contexts.

Strategies to Engage Men and Boys in Violence Prevention A Global Organizational Perspective

This study presents descriptive findings from in-depth interviews with 29 representatives of organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America that engage men and boys in preventing gender-based violence. In particular, the findings suggest that strategies are responsive to the specific cultural, economic, and contextual concerns of the local community, with nuanced messages and appropriate messengers. In addition, respondents reported key principles informing their organizational strategies to deepen men and boys’ engagement. Attention is also paid to respondents’ caution about the risks of framing of engagement practices as separate from both women’s organizations and women and girls themselves.

Global Efforts to Engage Men in Preventing Violence Against Women An International Survey

This research note expands on the limited body of knowledge about men’s engagement in preventing violence against women. One hundred and sixty-five individuals representing organizations from around the world participated in a brief online survey about their efforts to engage men in violence prevention. This study reveals a large and diverse global community working to engage men in preventing violence against women. The level of involvement is broad, from locally contained organizations to global collaborations. This study is a first step toward building a comparative knowledge base to inform program design and implementation.

The Braid That Binds Us The Impact of Neoliberalism, Criminalization, and Professionalization on Domestic Violence Work

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare recently released its Grand Challenges for Social Work. ‘‘Ending gender-based violence’’ (also referenced as domestic violence [DV] or intimate partner violence) constitutes one of two streams for the Grand Challenge #3, Stop Family Violence (Edleson, Lindhorst, & Kanuha, 2015). The authors of the white paper for this challenge map some of the history and current landscape of gender-based violence (GBV) in the United States while also providing some insight into social work’s role in research, practice, and policy in addressing this important issue. We agree with the authors that ending GBV requires interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaborations. We also agree that, as a field, ‘‘social work has not gone far enough’’ (p. 7). Although Edleson, Lindhorst, and Kanuha’s (2015) working paper suggests hope that the United States ‘‘has the resources, tools, and knowledge to move more quickly toward not only healthier nonviolent relationships but also families, neighborhoods, and communities that value safety, empowerment and respect for girls and women’’ (p. 3), little attention is paid to the political and economic conditions that create and shape antiviolence work (research, practice, policy) and how these conditions impact efforts that social workers might/ should/could enact to meet this Grand Challenge. We hope to expand this conversation and inspire social work’s engagement and capacity for addressing domestic violence (DV) by calling attention to the ways neoliberalism, criminalization, and professionalization are braided together to shape the kind of work made im/possible when it comes to ending DV. In this editorial, we will argue ‘‘the braid’’ of these three forces significantly influences and constrains DV work and research in the United States as demonstrated by Edleson et al.’s (2015) paper. Although we support the need for social work to take a proactive and thoughtful position in addressing DV across our communities, the dominance of positivist paradigms for research and practice at present fails to address the structural and systemic issues we believe are most critical to ending DV. We would, in fact, argue that the analysis and approach mapped by Edleson et al.’s paper is shaped by and contributes to the braid’s ongoing hold on DV work.

The Safer Futures Model: Developing Partnerships between Intimate Partner Violence and Health Care Agencies

This column highlights lessons learned from the Safer Futures model, which resulted from an effort to build successful partnerships between health care providers and intimate partner violence (IPV) agencies using a colocated advocate model. Using a “no wrong door” approach, the goal of Safer Futures is to increase access to IPV services for pregnant and newly parenting women. A demonstration project of the Safer Futures model was funded through the Pregnancy Assistance Fund in five different locations in Oregon. Here we present a brief description of the Safer Futures model and focus on the lessons learned during implementation to inform practice.

Book Review: More than medicine: A history of the feminist women’s health movement:

reluctance of health-care providers to suggest them, the initial cost, and myths associated with them which have their genesis with medical complications from the Dalkon Shield in the 1950s. Sawhill states that providing women with both the means and the information is critical in creating an “era in which all children are wanted and born to parents ready to raise them” (p. 128). Sawhill explores that over half of all births (70%) to young single women in the United States now occur outside of marriage and that unplanned pregnancies are resulting in women predominantly in their 20s drifting into parenthood rather than planning for it. She questions if marriage as a model is gone forever replaced by new forms of sex and dating including online dating and “hooking up” a term that denotes sexual contact without “the emotional entanglement of a relationship” (p. 22). While the left argues for more social support for unmarried parents, the right argues for a return to traditional marriage. Sawhill recommends a third approach in the position that the government should be doing more to ensure the safety and success of children and families while also supporting and challenging individuals to make parenthood a choice, not an accident. Generation Unbound offers readers a clear, expansive history of the incidences and impact of unplanned pregnancies. This is required reading for Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work readers and those who are committed to the health and welfare of children and families. Sawhill’s arguments may not suit all Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work’s readers’ taste, as it is at times conventional in its structure and tone. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Sawhill is committed to increasing our understanding of the American family and how changes in the last 50 years have affected women and children. Social workers are at the forefront of responding to many of these families and could be better informed by this book to respond more effectively.