The Dark Side Of Women’s Empowerment

Redefining Masculinity: From Dominance to Partnership

Violence against women is a symptom of a larger problem: some men’s belief that they have the right to control women’s behavior. Some exert control through violence, some through financial dominance, and others through the threat of divorce and social isolation. Whatever the method, the goal is the same: to keep the women in their lives under their control.

The tactics needed to overcome these entrenched and dangerous attitudes require slow and painstaking work on multiple fronts. And much of this is men’s work. We need more men to openly support their wives’ success. We need more conversations within households about how an entire family benefits when a woman thrives. We need men to congratulate each other when their wives succeed, instead of questioning their masculinity. And we need men to model to their sons the appropriate behavior of showing women respect and decency. The bottom line is that we need to redefine manhood in a way that does not involve dominating women.

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