The proliferation of men’s sheds in Australia: the problematization of masculinity in a neoliberal regime

Abstract

ABSTRACT Men’s sheds emerged in Australia with a promise to restore men to health and happiness through the provision of a gender-exclusive communal space and access to ‘traditional’ masculine activities. This article traces their emergence in order to examine how anti-feminist claims about the rights and needs of men have been yoked together with ideas about health and wellbeing in late modernity. Deploying Foucault’s concept of governmentality, moreover, reveals how community men’s sheds have both responded and contributed to the problematization of the ‘older man’ in a neoliberal regime. The history of their emergence and widespread support reveals how masculinity can function as a site of neoliberal intervention, responsibilization and privilege, particularly when viewed in contrast to the decline in funding and support for women’s services.