What to expect when men 'do feminism' on campus.

 
  "If you have come here to help me, please go home. But if you have 
  come because your liberation is somehow bound with mine, then we may 
  work together." 

This quote from an Aboriginal woman introduced a panel on using men as allies for equity at the combined conference of NASPA/ACPA held in Orlando in April.

Panelists were: Chris Linder, director of the office of women's programs and studies, and Ryan Barone, men's project coordinator, both of Colorado State University; Keith Edwards, a graduate assistant in the Beyond the Classroom Living Learning Program at the University of Maryland-College Park; Luoluo Hong, dean of student affairs at the West campus of Arizona State University and Tremayne Robertson, diversity education specialist at Syracuse University NY.

Thanks to alcohol abuse, date rape drugs and other situations leading to the abuse of women, the potential for interpersonal violence on campus is ever present. One thing we've learned is that women can't resolve the issue alone. It helps to invite and involve men to help create programs to reduce violence against women, because they have instant credibility among their peers. As role models, they can deliver strong messages that reach the intended audience without turning them off.

Caveats to involving men

But there's a downside to involving men. When a male joins the staff, a lot of assumptions are made that can limit progress and denigrate the work of the women now in the field and their predecessors.

Programs with men often get more resources than those with women alone. Unintended chauvinism rears its head when men are included as part of the equation. Those men who don't understand the way gender privilege works can set progress back decades.