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Time, care, masculinity. The benefits of an equal division of labour.

Annual conference of the umbrella organisation for men's work in Austria 2018 in Graz
23-24 April 2018, ÖGB Styria, Karl-Morre-Straße 32, I/Saal, 8020 Graz

How should the framework conditions be designed so that men take parental leave as a matter of course and reduce their working hours in order to invest more time in other areas of life? What approaches support the realisation of a self-caring view of one's own health? What measures can be taken to create role models in the childcare and education system? What co-operation and strategies are necessary to counteract gender-based male violence - the exact opposite of 'caring masculinity' - against women, children and men? How can we ensure that men who feel threatened in their social existence in the cut-throat competition for work do not fall back on traditional concepts of masculinity? And how can the 'harassed male elites' find peace?

The annual conference of the Dachverband Männerarbeit Österreich 2018 in Graz will address these questions and discuss the benefits and opportunities of a 'caring masculinity' with a view to a sustainable change in existing gender relations.

Gender equality efforts in recent decades have contributed to a change in gender relations. Nevertheless, attempts by the welfare state to regulate gender relations fall short if they do not take into account the tensions between man and economy, man and labour, socio-political issues and issues of distributive justice. Globalisation and the associated changes in employment relationships usually represent a movement in the opposite direction to attempts at regulation by the welfare state. For this reason, the gender democratic discourse must keep an eye on the social and economic embedding of gender.

Opportunities for constructive further development arise with regard to an expanded care perspective. In the context of male life plans, this perspective could express itself as a comprehensive, caring position of men in fundamental social contexts (economy, division of labour, ecology) and counteract the unbounded and destructive processes in these areas instead of reinforcing them. It is time to develop programmes and measures that challenge the (negative) effects of hegemonic-patriarchal masculinity structures for women AND men.

The concept of 'caring masculinity' appears to be a possible additional guiding principle of a gender equality policy that also takes men and masculinity(ies) into account and can be a good addition to existing guiding principles of gender equality policy. The central point here is that the concept of 'caring masculinity' focuses on the establishment or adaptation of structures and framework conditions and thus also provides suggestions for new forms of living together, a different organisation of paid and unpaid work and the adoption of a different way of dealing with oneself and others. At the same time, this concept picks up on something that has increasingly manifested itself in recent decades at the level of individual behavioural practices (e.g. active fatherhood).

However, this concept should not be understood solely as an individualising, individual-focused guiding objective, but rather as a goal for the orientation of gender equality policy strategies and measures in order to change structures, but also to set appropriate initiatives at political and company level - in order to clarify the questions that are at the centre of the conference.

"Only when men gain access to their own helplessness, to the certainty that one does not die socially when one shows helplessness, can they develop their own care perspective. The prerequisite for this, however, is the social recognition of this helplessness and not its economic-technological separation." (Böhnisch, 2004: 263)

Elli Scambor, Johanna Stadlbauer and Erich Lehner
Content and conference organisation

The aim of the conference is to visualise and strengthen concepts, alliances and interfaces in boys' and girls' work as well as in school and extracurricular work with young people.

Focus / Topics:

Challenges in dealing with diversity and cultural diversity, e.g. sexuality, physicality and health, violence prevention, career and life planning, integration and participation.

Cooperation and networking opportunities and (structural) conditions for this.

Monday 26.6.17

13.00 - 13.30 Welcome & introduction by the organisers

13.30 - 15.00 Presentations (Selim Asar, Ulrich Kropiunigg)

Coffee break

15.40 - 18.30 10 dialogue forums (parallel), followed by plenary discussion

From 19.00 Dinner & Come Together

Tuesday 27.6.17

08.30 - 10.30 Lectures (Mart Busche, Romeo Bissuti)

10.45 - 13.20 6 workshops (parallel), followed by plenary discussion

13.20 - 13.30 Closing and closing remarks by the organisers

Date: 26 June 2017 (start 13:00) and 27 June 2017 (end 14:00)

Location: Parkhotel Brunauer, Elisabethstrasse 45a, 5020 Salzburg

Target groups: Representatives (especially heads) from the field of girls' and boys' work and youth work (incl. AMS counselling); representatives from school psychology and school social work, as well as selected representatives from the regional school boards.

Context and project background

Men's health is a highly relevant topic for men and fathers. Men focus much less on their own health care than women, they lead riskier lives, eat more unhealthily and are exposed to a higher risk of suicide.  At the same time, we have realised that there are still far too few offers in this area. In particular, we believe that health information programmes, which form the basis for health literacy, need to be expanded. In our view, there is a great need for an independent programme aimed specifically at boys, men and fathers. This service should focus on the area of psychosocial health, as defined in the WHO Ottawa Charter.

The Exchange project "Health information for men and especially fathers on the Internet" is also based on the fact that, as organisations that work with men and fathers in particular, we are increasingly communicating with our clients via our websites. This is due to several factors:

• Our clients generally like to find information on the internet about topics that interest them.
• Our clients generally tend to use the strategy of helping themselves first when problems arise and therefore also obtain health information on their own initiative.
• Our clients want to obtain the health information they need when they have time to do so. This is often at the weekend, when our journal services are usually not available.
• Our clients value discretion and therefore turn to the internet as a source of health information.

We see the problem with this strategy of obtaining health information in several dimensions:

• Many websites that offer health information for men and fathers are commercially orientated and therefore do not offer neutral information.
• Many websites that offer health information for men and fathers do not offer the possibility of contacting organisations that provide expert advice.

As organisations that offer counselling and support for men and fathers, we would like to work on the challenges of providing health information for men and fathers as part of this Exchange project. Challenges associated with the preparation of health information for men and fathers on our websites. This includes the following topics:

• Increasing health literacy[1]
• Reliability of the information
• Client-orientated preparation
• User-friendliness
• Resources required
• Contact options to specialists
• Accessibility

Aim of the project

The project has four objectives:

• We improve the quality of our work through a professional exchange on our professional concepts for health information for men and fathers.
• We improve our health information for men and fathers on our websites.
• We develop an overview catalogue of necessary measures based on the topics mentioned and the associated resources required for the expansion of health information for men and fathers on our websites.
• We are developing a network in which the basis has been created through the joint work on this project. This will enable us to develop a follow-up project that will create intellectual output on our burning issues.

Activities and methods

A steering group responsible for monitoring will be set up. This is made up of representatives from all participating organisations.

Each participating organisation will host a meeting for a professional exchange.

Expected results

Based on the objectives and the associated participants and measures, we expect the following results

1. Gaining knowledge about the necessary conditions for expanding health information for men and fathers on our websites (catalogue of measures and associated necessary resources).
2. Sharpening of the specific health information services for men and fathers on our websites
3. Basic quality criteria for health information for men and fathers on our websites
4. Establishment of an international network for co-operation

Long-term benefits

In addition to improving the quality of our training courses, we see the establishment of a sustainable network for future collaborations as a long-term result. These should serve to realise projects with an intellectual output.

Funding

For financial support, we want to apply for funding from the EU's Erasmus+ programme as a strategic partnership in the field of adult education. This essentially covers travel costs and a lump sum for organisational costs, but cannot finance any actual personnel costs. There are also no room costs: it is assumed that the meetings will be hosted by one of the partners. However, the grant can provide considerable support for regular meetings.

Time frame

The project runs from 01.10.2020 to 31.09.2022 (24 months).

Perspective

Subsequently, a "Strategic Partnership to Support Innovation" could be developed from the joint focal points that emerge from the exchange. There is considerably more funding for this, including personnel costs. The aim is to publish intellectual outputs; this could also be the transfer of best practices from one country to the other partner countries. Based on current ideas, this could be, for example, the development of a joint web portal for men's health in German-speaking countries, or joint quality standards for the content of corresponding programmes.

Conference & network meeting for men's counselling
16/17 September 2024 | Arcotel Wimberger, Vienna

Boys' education, father education, men's counselling, violence, addiction and crisis intervention, trans, gay and queer counselling, therapy and men's health issues, sexual counselling, solutions for family and compatibility conflicts and much more. The growing field of men's work has become much more differentiated and professionalised over the past two decades. However, the provision is still patchy and often precarious.

How can we achieve a nationwide system of solidly anchored men's work and counselling? How can competence reflecting gender and masculinity be implemented in the existing counselling services and structures and strengthened among the counsellors themselves?

The international conference on 16-17 September 2024 in Vienna will bring together practitioners from the entire field of gender-reflective work with men, boys and fathers. It aims to learn from each other, exchange methods and reflect on the relevance of the work (at an individual, regional and societal level). Last but not least, we want to fight together to ensure that men's work receives the resources and security it needs to become a sustainable part of public services.

The international conference is part of the "Fostering Sustainable Masculinities" (FOSMA) project. This is supported by the umbrella organisations in the German-speaking world Dachverband Männerarbeit Österreich (DMÖ), Bundesforum Männer, Germany (BFM), männer.ch from Switzerland and infoMann from Luxembourg and is funded by the European Union as part of ERASMUS+.

With Markus Theunert (Männer.ch), Dag Schölper (BFM, DE), Eberhard Siegl (DMÖ, AT), Jean Wagener (InfoMann, LU), Anne Gallrein (BFKM, DE), Björn Süfke (mann-o-mann, DE), Mart Busche (ASH, DE), Matthias Stinn (Dipl. Psych., DE), Christoph Walser (Timeout statt Burnout, CH), Elli Scambor (VMG, AT), Erich Lehner (DMÖ, AT), Hubert Steger (DMÖ, AT), Klaus Schwerma (BFM, DE), Marc Gärtner(BFM, DE), Matthias Becker (Gleichstellungsstelle der Stadt Nürnberg, DE), Romeo Bissuti (MEN, AT) and many more.