Our approach

Our theory of change: transforming masculinities in three dimensions.

Emancipator is the only organization in the Netherlands that explicitly focuses on engaging boys, men and masculinity in gender equality. This is badly needed, because conversations about issues and problems involving gender often focus on women and lgbtqia+ people, while too often the core of the problem lies in oppressive masculinity norms. That is why we work on involving men in gender justice and changing societal norms for men and masculinity. Because in order to achieve gender equality, men must also change.

In our work, we connect organizations, professionals and activists to each other and to our issues. We work on capacity building and expertise building among professionals, activists and men themselves, to give them the information and inspiration they need to promote men’s emancipation in their own environments. And we support other players in the gender equality and “masculinity” field.

Emancipator cooperates with partners in all kinds of projects and networks, through tailor-made trainings and workshops in schools, companies and other organizations, and with publications on all kinds of related topics. In this way, Emancipator works as a catalyst for transforming masculinities, at a local, national and international level.

Our approach works in three dimensions. We focus our work on the early adopters: the people who are already interested in gender justice and masculinities and want more, so they in turn can reach those around them. This is how we expand the circles in the water.

That wave has to move through different places in society at the same time: at individual, relational, organizational, community and policy levels, we need to get people moving.

And that movement has to happen simultaneously on all issues related to masculinities, i.e. in all points of the pie: from preventing gender-based violence to the climate crisis and from talking about sexuality to political representation.