HOW CAN A RE-EXAMINATION OF MASCULINITY HELP STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN?
A summary of “Swimming Upstream: Looking for Clues to prevent male violence in couple relationships” by Oswaldo Montoya Telleria. Montoya’s article is based on the research carried out by the Foundation Puntos de Encuentro (Common Grounds) in Nicaragua which aimed to identify male fears and expectations in couple relationships with women and to identify the personal and social factors that influence men to be non-violent in couple relationships. The study was part of Puntos de Encuentro’s development of a campaign against male violence against women. As it is estimated in this piece that 29% of Nicaraguan women have experienced physical violence from their partners in the last year (from ENDESA 1998), this is clearly a pressing issue. One of the reasons that this study is particularly interesting is that it uses a group of men practicing non-violent relationships to effectively study why men are and are not violent in a relationship. Two study groups were set up — a group of men who d
