Men at Work to End Wife Abuse in Quebec

Abstract

Examining how men respond to the social problem of domestic violence may further our understanding of how woman abuse is defined and affected by the activities of groups making claims in relation to it. This article is a critical case study of how abusive men's programs in a Canadian province organized to advance their agenda for acceptance of an unprecedented men's network of generic services, based on men's identity politics. The authors note a continuing historical trend of individualizing woman abuse with this separate, uncoordinated development of resources for domestic violence perpetrators. Examining its implications, the authors conclude that homosocial men's projects must work in tandem with battered women's advocates and their resources, and include a number of principles in the politics of masculinities to guide them in their work.