Michael Kaufman | |
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Born | |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Toronto |
Thesis | Jamaica under Manley, 1972-1980: the limits of social democratic reform (1974) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | York University,Toronto |
Main interests | White Ribbon Campaign (co-founder) |
Michael Kaufman (born March 27,1951) is a Canadian author,educator,and theorist focused on engaging men and boys to promote gender equality,end violence against women,and end self-destructive ideals of manhood. He co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign in 1991,the largest network of men working to ending violence against women worldwide. Michael Kaufman also co-founded the Men for Women's Choice campaign with Gordon Cleveland in 1989. [1] He is a senior fellow of Instituto Promundo,an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro and Washington,D.C. [2]
Michael Kaufman was born in Cleveland,Ohio. He received a B.A. in Arts and Sciences from the University of Toronto,an M.A. in Political Economy from the University of Toronto,and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto. From 1979 until 1992,he taught primarily at York University in Toronto.
Michael Kaufman has worked as a lecturer and advisor to international NGOs,governments,universities and colleges,trade unions,and corporations. [3] He has worked with many non-governmental organizations including Amnesty International,OXFAM,and Save the Children. He has worked extensively with the United Nations,including with UNESCO,UNICEF,UN Women,UNDP,UNFPA,and IFAD. He has written or edited eight books,as well as numerous reports and articles. His work has been widely translated and has appeared in The Guardian, [4] The Daily Telegraph, [5] The Toronto Star [6] and other publications.
Michael Kaufman's work as co-founder and long-time volunteer with the White Ribbon Campaign in 1991,was based on the belief that a) the campaign should be decentralized,conceived of and led by the men and women within each community,b) that it should be politically non-partisan,reaching out to men across the political,religious,and social spectrum,and c) that it focus on a positive engagement of men and boys as individuals capable of bringing about change. [7]
As a volunteer,he has been a leader in various national and international networks of profeminist men,including,most recently,MenCare, [8] a global campaign focused on fatherhood which has the aim of men doing fifty percent of the care work on the planet. [9]
Michael Kaufman's widely published 1987 article,“The Construction of Masculinity and the Triad of Men’s Violence” [10] postulated that our dominant forms of masculinity were constructed through ongoing,socially-sanctioned,and mutually reinforcing forms of violence:against women,against other men,and internalized against oneself.
“Men,Feminism,and Men’s Contradictory Experiences of Power” [11] (1994 and revised in 1999) built on the argument of his book,Cracking the Armour:Power,Pain and the Lives of Men to look at the contradictory nature of men's power.
His article,“The 7 P’s of Men’s Violence”(1999) [12] has been translated into more than a dozen languages. It draws on key points of a feminist analysis of men's violence.
“The AIM Framework:Addressing and Involving Men and Boys to Promote Gender Equality and End Gender Discrimination and Violence” [13] (2001) synthesizes lessons from two decades of work by many individuals and organizations with men and boys and suggests that efforts to engage men must not only address men and boys about the importance of gender equality.
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that societies prioritize the male point of view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.
Misandry is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against men or boys.
Masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors considered masculine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. To what extent masculinity is biologically or socially influenced is subject to debate. It is distinct from the definition of the biological male sex, as anyone can exhibit masculine traits. Standards of masculinity vary across different cultures and historical periods.
The men's rights movement (MRM) is a branch of the men's movement. The MRM in particular consists of a variety of groups and individuals who focus on general social issues and specific government services which they say adversely impact—or in some cases structurally discriminate against—men and boys. Common topics discussed within the men's rights movement include family law, reproduction, suicides, domestic violence against men, false accusations of rape, circumcision, education, conscription, social safety nets, and health policies. The men's rights movement branched off from the men's liberation movement in the early 1970s, with both groups comprising a part of the larger men's movement.
Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies. Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama in The Transfeminist Manifesto.
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles in society has been conceptualized, or thought about, can be traced back to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and William Thompson's utopian socialist work in the 1800s. Ideas about overcoming the patriarchy by coming together in female groups to talk about personal problems stem from Carol Hanisch. This was done in an essay in 1969 which later coined the term 'the personal is political.' This was also the time that second wave feminism started to surface which is really when socialist feminism kicked off. Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.
Pro-feminism refers to support of the cause of feminism without implying that the supporter is a member of the feminist movement. The term is most often used in reference to men who actively support feminism and its efforts to bring about the political, economic, cultural, personal, and social equality of women with men. A number of pro-feminist men are involved in political activism, most often in the areas of gender equality, women's rights, and ending violence against women.
Men's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning men, masculinity, gender, culture, politics and sexuality. It academically examines what it means to be a man in contemporary society.
Sociology of gender is a prominent subfield of sociology. Social interaction directly correlated with sociology regarding social structure. One of the most important social structures is status. This is determined based on position that an individual possesses which effects how they will be treated by society. One of the most important statuses an individual claims is gender. Public discourse and the academic literature generally use the term gender for the perceived or projected (self-identified) masculinity or femininity of a person.
The men's movement is a social movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily in Western countries, which consists of groups and organizations of men and their allies who focus on gender issues and whose activities range from self-help and support to lobbying and activism.
Michael G. Flood is an Australian sociologist and a professor at the Queensland University of Technology School of Justice. Flood gained his doctorate in gender and sexuality studies from the Australian National University. His areas of research are on violence against women, fathering, pro-feminism, domestic violence, the effects of pornography on young people, safe sex among heterosexual men, men's movements as a backlash to the feminist movement, men's relationships with each other and with women, homophobia, men's health, and gender justice. He is a regular contributor to and is regularly quoted in the media on these and other issues.
Michael Alan Messner is an American sociologist. His main areas of research are gender and the sociology of sports. He is the author of several books, he gives public speeches and teaches on issues of gender-based violence, the lives of men and boys, and gender and sports.
Feminism is a broad term given to works of those scholars who have sought to bring gender concerns into the academic study of international politics and who have used feminist theory and sometimes queer theory to better understand global politics and international relations as a whole.
Since the 19th century, men have taken part in significant cultural and political responses to feminism within each "wave" of the movement. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in a range of social relations, generally done through a "strategic leveraging" of male privilege. Feminist men have also argued alongside writers like bell hooks, however, that men's liberation from the socio-cultural constraints of sexism and gender roles is a necessary part of feminist activism and scholarship.
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males and in feminist theory where it is used to describe broad social structures in which men dominate over women and children. In these theories it is often extended to a variety of manifestations in which men have social privileges over others causing exploitation or oppression, such as through male dominance of moral authority and control of property.
Masculism or masculinism may variously refer to ideologies and socio-political movements that seek to eliminate sexism against men, equalize their rights with women, and increase adherence to or promotion of attributes regarded as typical of males. The terms may also refer to the men's rights movement or men's movement, as well as a type of antifeminism.
Feminist political theory is an area of philosophy that focuses on understanding and critiquing the way political philosophy is usually construed and on articulating how political theory might be reconstructed in a way that advances feminist concerns. Feminist political theory combines aspects of both feminist theory and political theory in order to take a feminist approach to traditional questions within political philosophy.
Promundo is a Brazilian-based, non-governmental organization with offices in Brasília, Brazil, that work in collaboration to promote caring, non-violent and equitable masculinities and gender relations in Brazil and internationally. Promundo's work engages women, girls, boys and men; strives to transform gender norms and power relations within key institutions; and is based on building local and international partnerships. It is an applied research institute that works to test, evaluate and advocate for policies and programs that transform masculinities.
Rob Okun is a writer-editor, activist known for his strong advocacy for the pro-feminist men's movement. He is a former executive director of the Men’s Resource Center for Change (MRC), one of the earliest men’s centers in North America. Okun is the editor of Voice Male, the magazine chronicling masculinities and men's engagement in the gender equity movement. Editor of books on political art and profeminism, his work has appeared in numerous publications and websites including Women's eNews, Ms., Counterpunch, The Telegraph of London, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Dallas Morning News among others.
Maria da Graça Samo is a global women's rights activist. Since 2013, Samo has been the international coordinator for the World March of Women (WMW) which is a feminist, anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, anti-colonialist movement that aims to address the root causes of poverty and violence against women.