Men's Groups

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In the early years of the 21st century things are beginning to change with respect to men's group. More men are beginning to feel the need to meet to discuss joint issues with other men and to receive support. These issues are often very specific ones.

For example, men who are single parents sometimes form groups, or men who are separated or divorced and feel the need to fight for their rights as fathers sometimes do likewise. In addition, men are beginning to become aware of health problems that are specific to the male sex, and it is extremely feasible that this concern may give rise to the formation of more specifically male groups.

Another reason why men are beginning to group together in a way that has been common in women for some time relates to their concern for their rights and for their standing in society, the very issues that first drew women together. Because of women's success in the workplace, and because of the lack of employment opportunities generally, men have begun to feel threatened and to think that the assertion of women's rights has gone too far at the expense of their own.

More men are beginning to feel the need to discuss joint issues with other men and receive support. These issues are often very specific ones, divorce, being a single parent, the rights of fathers and men's health problems. If the formation of purely male groups continues to increase, it will certainly encourage individual men to explore their inner selves simply because such groups will set them thinking about their individual lives and roles in the same way that they set women thinking about theirs.

Thus, some people find the way to self-exploration through membership of some kind of discussion group, whether or not they had that specific intention when they became members. Others feel that self-exploration is a more solitary pursuit.