Michael Kaufman (author)

Michael Kaufman (born March 27, 1951) is a Canadian author, educator, and theorist focused on engaging men and boys to promote gender equality, end violence against women, and end self-destructive ideals of manhood. He co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign in 1991, the largest network of men working to ending violence against women worldwide. Michael Kaufman also co-founded the Men for Women's Choice campaign with Gordon Cleveland in 1989.^[1] He is a senior fellow of Instituto Promundo, an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro and Washington, D.C.^[2]

Background

Michael Kaufman was born in

Michael Kaufman's work as co-founder and long-time volunteer with the White Ribbon Campaign in 1991, was based on the belief that a) the campaign should be decentralized, conceived of and led by the men and women within each community, b) that it should be politically non-partisan, reaching out to men across the political, religious, and social spectrum, and c) that it focus on a positive engagement of men and boys as individuals capable of bringing about change.[7]

As a volunteer, he has been a leader in various national and international networks of profeminist men, including, most recently, MenCare,^[8] a global campaign focused on fatherhood which has the aim of men doing fifty percent of the care work on the planet.^[9]

Key Ideas

Michael Kaufman's widely published 1987 article, “The Construction of Masculinity and the Triad of Men’s Violence”^[10] postulated that our dominant forms of masculinity were constructed through ongoing, socially-sanctioned, and mutually reinforcing forms of violence: against women, against other men, and internalized against oneself.

“Men, Feminism, and Men’s Contradictory Experiences of Power”^[11] (1994 and revised in 1999) built on the argument of his book, Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain and the Lives of Men to look at the contradictory nature of men's power.

His article, “The 7 P’s of Men’s Violence” (1999)^[12] has been translated into more than a dozen languages. It draws on key points of a feminist analysis of men's violence.

“The AIM Framework: Addressing and Involving Men and Boys to Promote Gender Equality and End Gender Discrimination and Violence”^[13] (2001) synthesizes lessons from two decades of work by many individuals and organizations with men and boys and suggests that efforts to engage men must not only address men and boys about the importance of gender equality.

Selected publications

Books

• Kaufman, Michael (1985). Jamaica Under Manley: Dilemmas of Socialism & Democracy. Zed Books.
  OCLC 707054474
  .
• Kaufman, Michael, ed. (1987). Beyond Patriarchy: Essays by Men on Pleasure, Power, and Change. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 9780195405347
  .
• Kaufman, Michael; Brod, Harry, eds. (1994). Theorizing Masculinities. Sage Publications.
  ISBN 9780803949041
  .
• Kaufman, Michael (1994). Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain and the Lives of Men. Viking/Penguin.
  ISBN 9780140177756
  .
• Kaufman, Michael; Alfonso, Haroldo Dilla, eds. (1997). Community Power & Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation of Social Life. Zed Books.
  ISBN 9780889367845
  .
• Kaufman, Michael (1999). The Possibility of Dreaming on a Night Without Stars. Viking/Penguin.
  ISBN 9780140280661
  .
• Kaufman, Michael;
  ISBN 9781580054256
  .
• Kaufman, Michael; Barker, Gary (2015). The Afghan vampires book club. London: World Editions.
  ISBN 9789462380493
  .

• Kaufman, Michael (2001), "The construction of masculinity and the triad of men's violence", in
  ISBN 9780205321056
  .