Men’s Groups

Abstract

Groups of men have existed throughout history. Men have congregated in all male groups in every society to accomplish a wide variety of political, social, religious, economic, recreational, and personal tasks. Most of these groups, whether large in size, such as an all-male army or religious order, or small, such as a meeting of the male tribal leaders in a primitive society or a gathering of a totally male corporate board of directors in an industrial society, have both reflected and served to maintain cultural definitions of masculine and feminine gender roles. Quite simply, men have met in all-male groups to perform certain functions which have most often been separated from the functions women perform. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a type of men’s group which differs from these other exclusively male groups. The specific functions of this type of men’s group are to encourage examination of how the masculine gender role is experienced by individual men and to explore new ways of enacting this role.