Description
Over the past decade, there has been a growth of social norm change programming within sites of conflict and peacebuilding which explicitly aim to shift men’s relationship with gender. These initiatives aim to address a variety of issues including gender-based violence, violent extremism, violent conflict resolution and sexual health. Though these initiatives are diverse, they tend to focus on changing the attitudes, behaviours and identities of young marginalised men who are seen as being ‘at risk.’ At the same time these initiatives often rely on older men as potential role-models or advocates for change. This paper analyses these tendencies from a critical masculinities framework, suggesting that programming has unwittingly pathologised youth masculinities at the same time framing older men as natural authorities. Reflecting on fieldwork in Fiji, Aceh and a set of international expert interviews the paper concludes that existing social norm change programming during peacebuilding ends up prioritising the stabilisation of patriarchy over more meaningful change.
