Men, masculinities and social policy

The politics and analysis of social policy are still often represented as gender-neutral; when they are explicitly gendered, this is often directed primarily or even exclusively to the position and experiences of women. Fundamental though this focus on women is, the role of social policy in the construction, enactment and embodiment of men and men’s practices is a crucial part of gender power relations, as is in turn the impact of men and masculinities on the construction and development of social policy. This chapter addresses these issues, including men’s presence, and sometimes absence, in social policy and social policy debates. There are numerous ways in which social policy concerns men and masculinities, in its formulation, implementation, delivery, and inclusions/ exclusions. Different men have variable relations to social policy, and are involved and implicated, both structurally and in their practices, in social policy in a wide variety of ways, as, for instance: users, family members, practitioners, state managers and workers, policy-makers, professionals, members of social organizations, NGOs, social movement organizing. At the same time, these numerous policy domains exist within contexts that are specific to each of the societies where they occur across the globe.