Saturday Magazine

15 Sep 2024

Saturday, 14th, September, 2024: Steph Lusby, Manager of Research at Respect Victoria; Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women

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Saturday, 14th, September, 2024: Steph Lusby, Manager of Research at Respect Victoria; Willing, capable and confident: men, masculinities and the prevention of violence against women

Janet and Macca talk to Steph Lusby, Manager of Research at Respect Victoria, and one of the authors on a new report that looks at men and masculinities and the prevention of violence.

Stephanie is a Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University. Her current research focuses on LGBTIQ people’s experience of family, domestic and sexual violence services in Australia. Stephanie has a background in qualitative research, evaluation and program implementation in family and sexual violence sectors, HIV and STI prevention, gender, social change and governance, and gendered violence in post-conflict settings. Prior to joining ARCSHS, she was Director of Prevention programs with Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV).

In this role, she co-led the establishment of a partnership between Rainbow Health Victoria and DVRCV to help mainstream prevention practitioners expand their understanding of the gendered drivers of violence against women to include how these are mapped onto drivers of violence against LGBTIQ people.

Key findings

The report looks at how men described contexts that help them to question or disconnect from harmful ideas of masculinity and presents 5 opportunities to support more men to live freely outside the Man Box:

Men see and understand the benefits of emotionally supportive, safe and equitable intimate partner relationships for themselves and their partners
Fathers understand how gender norms can influence their parenting and impact their children
Men’s families and social networks can support them to let go of harmful ideas about what it means to be a man and can encourage healthy forms of masculinity
Men’s increased openness to discuss their mental health and wellbeing can be built upon by gender-transformative primary prevention efforts
Workplace initiatives, cultures and reforms provide opportunities to challenge harmful ideas about what it means to be a man.

The report also highlights future directions for primary prevention efforts to engage with men, including:

the importance of consistent and coordinated settings-based prevention work
continuing to build evidence of what works to shift harmful forms of masculinity
supporting media to build men’s willingness, capability and confidence to be part of prevention.