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Men’s Groups: Challenging Feminism

From 26–27 May 2014, feminist and pro-feminist scholars in multiple disciplines from Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden, and Taiwan gathered at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to participate in a workshop entitled ‘‘Men’s Groups: Challenging Feminism.’’ The workshop was organized by Susan B Boyd, then Chair in Feminist Legal Studies at the Allard School of Law, and was generously sponsored by the Peter Wall Institute, the Allard School of Law, the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Centre for Feminist Legal Studies, and the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (CJWL). The objective of the workshop was to address a modern source of resistance to feminism: organizations acting in the name of men’s and fathers’ rights and interests. These groups argue that men are discriminated against in relation to law (especially family law and laws on violence against women), education, and government funding. Another objective was to provide an opportunity for self-examination, update, and creativity to support the advancement of feminist theories and strategies. Two key issues explored were: (1) how men’s group actions in different countries and at the international level engage with, and discursively construct, feminism and (2) lessons for the feminist movement—nationally and globally; historically and currently—from the arguably growing legitimacy of men’s groups. Not all of these groups are conservative or overtly anti-feminist,1 but many are, some vitriolicly so,2 seeking a return to some perceived pre-feminist world of traditional gender roles and family values. These groups use various sites of struggle, including law reform debates, cyberspace, and the media, to present their views.3 They also appear at public venues such as courts and government buildings and often use