What do men and feminism have to do with each other? How can men contribute to gender equality and engage more in care work? Hear Nikki van der Gaag discuss these questions and much more on episode 2 of Now and Men. Nikki is a feminist writer and researcher specialising in gender and development. She has a particular interest in men and masculinities, and has written a book called ‘Feminism and Men’ in 2014, as well as the ‘No-nonsense’ Guide to Feminism in 2017. She is an independent consultant and a Senior Fellow at Promundo, as well as being on the Steering Committee for MenEngage Europe. Until 2019 she was the Director of Gender Justice and Women's Rights at Oxfam GB.

Some of the issues we cover in our conversation include:

• Why, as a feminist, Nikki works on masculinities and fatherhood.
• How her own experiences of being a parent and growing up as a girl have shaped her involvement in feminist activism.
• Different ways in which men have responded to feminism across society.
• Men’s role in building gender equality, and everyday things men can do as allies.
• What needs to change in society to get more men involved in caregiving.
• The impact of Covid-19 on caregiving and on gender equality.
• Why there is cause for optimism within emerging social movements.

You can follow Nikki on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/NikkivanderGaag or on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-van-der-gaag-455a883/

In the episode, we mention the following pieces of work:

• Nikki’s book, ‘Feminism and Men’ (2014), published by Zed Books: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/feminism-and-men-9781780329116
• Her ‘No Nonsense’ Guide to Feminism, published in 2016 by Verso/New Internationalist: https://newint.org/books/new-internationalist/nononsense-feminism
• Promundo’s State of the World’s Fathers reports: http://stateoftheworldsfathers.org
• Plan International’s State of the World’s Girls reports: https://plan-uk.org/about-because-i-am-a-girl/because-i-am-a-girl-past-reports
• Find out more about the organisations Nikki has been involved in: https://promundoglobal.org, http://menengage.org, https://oxfam.org.uk, https://younglives.org.uk
• And other organisations that she mentions: https://wbg.org.uk/commission/, https://fawcettsociety.org.uk, https://awid.org, https://youngfeministfund.org

If you would like to give us your feedback, suggest a guest, or have a question you'd like us to discuss in a future episode, get in touch with us at nowandmen@gmail.com.

This episode was hosted and produced by Stephen Burrell and Sandy Ruxton. Thank you very much to Professor Nicole Westmarland, Durham University, and Vic Turnbull (MIC Media) for all of their support in setting up Now and Men.