In what sectors and contexts should work on gender and development involve men as beneficiaries? What are the issues confronting men who work in development projects that are committed to promoting gender equality? These questions were addressed by contributors to a seminar hosted by Oxfam GB, with the Center for Cross-Cultural Research on Women at the University of Oxford, in Oxford in June 2000.

Based on research commissioned by the World Bank, this books primary focus is on incorporating men in gender and development interventions at the grass roots level. It draws attention to some of the key problems that have arisen from male exclusion; as well as to the potential benefits of - and obstacles to - men's inclusion.

A wide-ranging volume featuring contributions from some of today's leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of men, masculinities and development. Together, contributors challenge the neglect of the structural dimensions of patriarchal power relations in current development policy and practice, and the failure to adequately engage with the effects of inequitable sex and gender orders on both men's and women's lives. The book calls for renewed engagement in efforts to challenge and change stereotypes of men, to dismantle the structural barriers to gender equality, and to mobilize men to build new alliances with women's movements and other movements for social and gender justice.

Articles discuss how gender mainstreaming has been understood in different organisations; provide examples of good work, which supports the empowerment of women; and look beyond gender mainstreaming to what new possibilities exist for transformation.

Men appear to be missing from much gender and development policy, but many emerging critiques suggest the need to pay more attention to understanding men and masculinities, and to analyzing the social relationships between men and women. This book considers the case for a focus on men in gender and development, which requires us to reconsider some of the theories and concepts which underlie policies. It includes arguments based on equality and social justice, the specific gendered vulnerabilities of men, the emergence of a crisis of masculinity and the need to include men in development as partners for strategic change.