Facilitating non-mixed groups with men
Involving men in a women’s empowerment project enables women to receive support from those around them (husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, neighbours, etc.), to avoid being blocked by their male peers, and encourages their emancipation process.
As a facilitator or trainer, it is important to work on your position to facilitate the process of deconstructing traditional masculinity and promote equitable behaviour between men and women. Discover some practical advice on how to move towards a role as a facilitator in order to work on egalitarian masculinity in spaces with men.
NON-MIXITY
To begin with, it is essential to work in single-sex mode, i.e. to bring together an all-male group. It is preferable that the facilitator is also a man. If women are present, men may not express themselves naturally and limit their participation. It is also preferable for the
facilitator to come from the community, as it is always easier to talk to your peers.
OFFER SOMETHING OTHER THAN TRAINING
To encourage the men to take part, you can suggest an activity that they enjoy or are used to doing : playing sport together, organising an inter-neighbourhood football tournament, meeting in a café to talk about politics, etc. This activity can bring them together and is a pretext for starting to talk about the reality that these men experience, but also about the women around them.
CREATING A CLOSE, HORIZONTAL RELATIONSHIP WITH PEOPLE
- The role of the facilitator is to accompany the discussion and reflection, not to pass on their own knowledge. The closer the facilitator gets to the participants, the more their will be able to contribute horizontally to the discussions. These relationships and the process of sharing is the starting point that new practices will be built on.
- You can use accessible language, closer to the way the participants express themselves. This will help the men to speak more confidently, as they would with friends in the street.
- Avoiding a relationship of domination and favouring mutual respect will enable you to share on an equal footing. To achieve this, it is important to listen to men and give them the floor, rather than taking it from them. This is often referred to as listening circles or
talking circles.
- And last but not least : lecturing participants on machismo does not work !
To find out about other best practices, download the sheet below or in the column on the right.
