Continuum of Male Engagement

I developed The Continuum of Male Engagement (2006/2018) in the late 1990’s as a conceptual tool to assist efforts to effectively engage men in work to end gender-based violence. The basic premise is that our efforts to engage men and boys are better served when we a) focus these efforts on those men who are “most engage-able” (rather than seeking to engage all men in our communities or on our campuses) and b) strategically align the engagement efforts with the degree of willingness to be engaged of the men we’re seeking to engage. Over the years, it has been revised several times and has become a tool that is widely used and referred to by campus- and community-based efforts.

On this webpage, you’ll find several resources related to using the continuum. Coming this fall and winter, I will produce a series of four video “classes” that unpack some of the issues and dynamics related to using the continuum, and will provide you more information and support for applying the Continuum of Male Engagement to your prevention efforts. This video series includes:

“An Introduction and Overview of the Continuum of Male Engagement“
“Reaching out and Responding to those men who are opposed”
“Core Standards and Principles to Engaging Men”
“Using an Intersectional Approach to Engaging Men”

Stay tuned for more upcoming resources and support!

Resources

Core Standards for Engaging Men These Core standards, taken from a variety of sources and lessons learned from the global movement, provide a conceptual foundation for how to develop engaging men efforts that appear to be proving the most meaningful and effective.

Continuum of Men’s Engagement (revised) Originally published in 2006, the Continuum of Male Engagement provides an a conceptual structure for strategically choosing which men to focus on engaging, and developing strategies and efforts which are aligned with their level of willingness to be engaged.

An Introduction and Overview of the Continuum of Male Engagement This manual provides an overview of the Continuum of Male Engagement including the theoretical foundations, and an exploration of strategies to engage men at various levels of their willingness to be engaged.

Continuum de la Implicaccion Masculina (the Continuum of Male Engagement, Spanish Version)

Reaching out and Responding to “Unengage-able” Men In the Continuum of Male Engagement, there are three categories of men who are identified as “un-engageable (for now). While its important to not spend energy trying to convince these men that they should be engaged, this does not mean that practitioners and activists should ignore men. In this manual, I provide insights on how to respond to some of the comments and behaviors of these men (such as “incels”), and reach out to those men who might become engage-able in the future.

Overview — clarifying engagement In this one-page overview, I examine five different but overlapping goals that are common in efforts to “engage” men. A longer article is forthcoming.