Doing profeminist research with men in social work: reflections on epistemology, methodology, and politics

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was involved in attempts to construct a profeminist activism in relation to gender inequality.1 I had previously been involved in men’s consciousness-raising groups in the 1970s and the 1980s. However, it was not until 1991 when I co-founded Men Against Sexual Assault that this consciousness raising moved into concerted activism against men’s violence against women (Pease, 1997). Even in those early days, my sense was that work done by men with men against men’s violence should be accountable to critical reference groups of women who worked in women’s services.