Derbyshire council spending £40,000 to tackle toxic masculinity

A Derbyshire council is spending £40,000 to teach school students and pupils about toxic masculinity and misogyny and to support “safe respectful behaviours”.

Derbyshire County Council went out to tender for an “exploring masculinities” programme earlier this year and the year-long scheme will be led by Devon charity Beyond Equality.

The programme the county council hired the charity for is detailed as follows: “Exploring masculinities will support pupils in secondary education setting, as well as education staff, to be able to reflect on pressures young people face regarding masculinity and produce an action plan to support embedding safe respectful behaviours in the whole setting.

“This project will serve to support students and their school settings to reflect on the pressures they experience concerning masculinity, and develop school communities that support respectful, safe, healthy behaviour of the whole school.”

Through the workshops carried out by the charity, either in person or via Zoom, boys are encouraged to “take off their armour” and reflect on how they may be pressured to act.

Dan Guinness, director of Beyond Equality, said on the charity’s website: “There’s a need and an opportunity in the UK to engage men in a brave and transformative rethinking of what ‘being a man’ means for them and others.

“We need to engage all men in preventing gender based violence and creating communities that are safe for everyone.

“We need to give all men and boys the chance to develop identities and behaviours that are healthier for themselves and others.

“Boys won’t be boys, they’ll be what we teach them to be.”

The charity’s website said it aims to let “boys choose how to be boys” and gives space for “conversations about ‘being a man’ so boys can do better by women and girls, non-binary folk and each other”.

The charity, which was created eight years ago, said it has worked with 25,000 pupils to date and that 80 per cent of students who take part say they would like more sessions.