Deepening Men’s Engagement with Supporting Women in Leadership Part 2: Approaches for Male Allyship in Bougainville

Abstract

This is the second instalment of a two-part In Brief series drawing on the authors’ doctoral research conducted in Melanesia between 2016 and 2019. Part one discusses how men are essential to women’s leadership success in the Pacific, especially in elections. However, shifting men, particularly those with societal privileges, from passive supporters to active advocates or allies for women’s social justice can be challenging. In this piece, I explore effective strategies for engaging men in supporting women’s leadership and combating violence, drawing on interviews with male allies from the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation (NCfR) in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. I observe NCfR as a model of successful approaches to fostering male allyship and advancing gender equality by selecting allies, providing training and dedicating spaces for men.