Aim and research questions: In recent years rising attention has been drawn to boys, men and
masculinities within the field of gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Given this
partial shift from a previous strong focus on women, this thesis addresses the linkages between,
on the one hand, male gender, antiviolence and HIV/AIDS activism, and on the other hand
women’s collective action and possibilities to continue defining objectives in the struggles
against gender inequality, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. The purpose of the study is to
analyse gendered power relations in the male involvement discourse in relation to the bridging of
men’s and women’s gender, antiviolence and HIV/AIDS activism. This global discourse is
analysed in a South African context. My specific research questions are:
- How are different positions in the male involvement discourse constructed – specifically in
relation to the formation of links between men’s and women’s gender activism?
- What gender and power analyses underlie arguments and practices related to creating such
links?
- What is the role of donors and international development cooperation in the male
involvement discourse in relation to forming such links?
Method and material: The study is based on a discourse analysis of documents, participatory
observations and, most of all, semi-structured interviews with representatives of gender,
antiviolence and HIV/AIDS organisations focusing on men (Sonke Gender Justice Network and
EngenderHealth), women’s rights organisations (People Opposing Women Abuse, Yabonga and
Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre) and donors (Sida and USAID). The discourse analytical
framework chosen is inspired mainly by Foucault, Laclau and Mouffe.
Main results and conclusions: This thesis points at a number of ambivalences in the male
involvement discourse and its intersection with the partnership discourse. By exploring these, the
study demonstrates how gendered power relations are resisted and reproduced in arguments and
practices related to bridging men’s and women’s gender activism. Creating such links is a means
to resist gendered power relations potentially reproduced in work with men. However, by
exploring positions of resistance within the male involvement and partnership discourses, this
thesis also shows how these discursive practices arguably obscures gendered power relations still
reproduced in such partnerships. Moreover, a dualistic and deterministic view of men and
women as belonging to two different and somewhat homogenous groups is frequently reinforced
and resisted. The study also draws attention to the role of internat...
