Men, Masculinities and Social Change

Male role models

‘Beyond male role models: Gender identities and work with young men’ was an Open University research project with Action for Children, supported by an ESRC grant. CRiVA member Sandy Ruxton was a consultant on the project. The research led to a number of publications, including:

Tarrant, A., Terry, G., Ward, M.R.M., Ruxton, S., Robb, M. and Featherstone, B. (2015)

Article – Are male role models really the solution? Interrogating the ‘war on boys’ through the lens of the ‘male role model’ discourse

Boyhood Studies, 8(1): 60-83.

Ward, M.R.M, Tarrant, A., Terry, G., Featherstone, B., Robb, M. and Ruxton, S. (2017)

Article – Doing gender locally: The importance of ‘place’ in understanding marginalised masculinities and young men’s transitions to ‘safe’ and successful futures

Sociological Review, 65(4): 797-815

Ruxton, S., Robb, M., Featherstone, B. and Ward, M.R.M. (2019)

Chapter – Beyond male role models: Gender identities and work with young men in the UK

In: Kulkarni, M. and Jain, R. (eds) Global Masculinities: Interrogations and Reconstructions, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 82-98.

Ruxton, S. (30/10/2015)

Commentary – Do boys need male role models?

The Huffington Post

A subsequent study by Martin Robb and Sandy Ruxton, based on a series of focus groups with a diverse cross-section of young men, found that many continued to experience pressures to conform to rigid and stereotypical notions of what it means to be a man, but they also increasingly expressed scepticism towards and detachment from these stereotypes.

Robb, M. and Ruxton, S. (2018)

Chapter – Young men and gender identity

In: Montgomery, H. and Robb, M. (eds) Children and Young People’s Worlds. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 141-156

Robb, M., Ruxton, S. and Bartlett, D. (2017)

Report – Young men, masculinity and wellbeing

Open University and Promundo-US