From time to time, I invite colleagues to write a guest blog. Jorgen Lorentzen and Oystein Holter are both prominent in Norway as profeminist men working to promote gender equality and end all forms of violence against women. All opinions are those of the authors.

In Norway, Gender Equality Does Extend to the [...]

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First a quick story. In early December, I was getting on an Air New Zealand flight from Brisbane to Auckland and there was a group who looked like they were from some South Pacific island. Men and women: tall and striking with flowers in their hair. On the plane, one of the men was [...]

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On December 6, 1989, Canada changed forever. Until that day, thousands of women in our country suffered violence with little recourse. A woman beaten was a woman ignored. A woman raped was a woman who asked for it. A woman harassed at work was a woman who couldn’t [...]

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I looked around the meeting hall, full of energy, full of some courageous women and men working in dangerous and challenging circumstances, and others, just like myself, who simply believed we could make a difference in the world. We had gathered from eighty countries, 450 men and women, together with one objective: to improve the [...]

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Letter from Riga, Latvia

On November 23, 2006 By Michael Kaufman

There are many deep shadows along the cobbled streets of Riga. Shadows not only from the low sun on these short days of early winter, but the ones that cut much deeper from the years of Nazi and Soviet occupation.

Those shadows are mine to see for I think of my Grandmother on these streets [...]

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Letter from Italy

On November 20, 2006 By Michael Kaufman

In the end it was the boys.

I was in Parma, the sixth of ten cities during my two weeks in Italy, itself the fourth and final country on this speaking trip. The events in Italy were starting to blur: the eighteen workshops for teachers or students, the ten speeches and press conferences, interviews on [...]

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This city rises up the hillsides on both sides of the Bosporus, the wide channel from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the divide between Europe and Asia. It is a city of domed mosques and pencil minarets, of the old bazaar and new shops selling Boss and Channel, of rambling old streets jammed with [...]

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It’s a small city of 200,000, known as the home of sherry and a centre for flamenco. It’s also a wonderful example of how a city government can promote initiatives to transform the roles of men and support work among men to end violence against women. Seven years ago the city started the Men for [...]

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Letter from India

On December 15, 2004 By Michael Kaufman

There is a collection of brothels at the side of the highway an hour outside of Agra. Young women, some really just girls, stand at the roadside doorways, hoping their make up and smiles will bring in the $3 customers. In the poorest neighbourhoods of the cities, sex might cost thirty cents or a buck.

[...]

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From Canada to Korea, Brazil to China, Spain to South Africa, Pakistan to the United States, men are finally challenging a grave epidemic and a terrible form of terrorism. It is not a disease, nor what we normally refer to as terrorism. But that doesn’t matter for the thousands of women who are murdered each [...]

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White Ribbon Campaign

White Ribbon Campaign

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the White Ribbon Campaign, men working to end violence against women.  What started as an idea three of us discussed around a kitchen table has now spread to 60 countries.  Visit www.whiteribbon.com or campaign sites around the world.
ManTalk
NOW FREE! The booklet that brings young men into a conversation about what we can do to create good relationships and make sure that dating violence has no place in our lives. It talks about communication, consent, and what guys really think, as opposed to what we often say to each other. Serious yet entertaining, intelligent yet accessible, challenging yet fun.