"Supporting Boys' Resilience: New Possibilities for Manhood

This conference is co-sponsored by the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Leading members of the academic and direct-service communities will gather to engage in a conversation about boys' resilience, culturally constructed images of masculinity, and possibilities of giving new meaning to manhood. For over a decade, particularly through Take Our Daughters to Work day, the Ms. Foundation has successfully focused national attention on girls and their resilience. Too often, the focus on girls has been viewed as taking something away from boys or, worse yet, as an attack on boys. The conference will explore how the gender order in our society has harmful effects on all members of the human community and how to support both genders to develop their whole selves, recognizing how the lives and futures of women and girls are interwoven with those of men and boys.