Building men's health shoulder to shoulder : an exploration into the influence of men's sheds on men's health
Creators: name: Haesler, Emily Jane
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2016

description: Men in Western society have poorer health outcomes on a range of measures and are shown to have poor health knowledge and lower engagement in preventive health than women. Numerous social determinants of health increase men's health risks. Feminist theories of masculinity describe the influence of culture, environment and social interaction on perceptions of being a man. Hegemonic masculinity in today's culture constructs the ideal man as tough, self-reliant, independent and dominant to females and subordinate or invisible masculinities. Although not attainable to all men, this hegemonic masculinity is positioned as the ideal, and men either seek to attain it, or actively reject it through their masculine acts. Significantly, how a man views and acts out his masculine role can influence his health. Notwithstanding global and local culture, the culture of a specific place in which the man is embedded has a strong influence on portrayal of masculinity, including through health behaviours. Men's sheds emerged in rural South Australia in the 1990s as a community initiative with a common purpose of providing men with a "backyard shed" environment in which to undertake meaningful work and socially engage with other men in a safe and familiar space. Men's sheds are promoted as providing social support, education and psychological benefits for Australian men. Although the men's shed movement has attained recognition within the Australian National Male Health Policy, there is limited research on the impact of men's sheds on men's health and the way men engage with their health. This qualitative research aimed to fill this gap by providing an in-depth investigation into the influence of men's sheds on men's health. Set in four Australian men's sheds in rural and urban locations, this research explored how men's social networks are utilised to make sense of and manage health, and how the man's 'doing' of gender mediates both his social interaction and his health behaviour. Using a mixed methodology, qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and social network analysis undertaken with 32 men attending men's sheds, the thesis unravels their experiences of masculinity, of engaging in the men's shed space and the influence of these experiences on health behaviour. The findings suggest that men attending workshops actively rejected the hegemonic notion that older men embody a subordinate masculinity. These men actively take on meaningful roles as helpers in the community. In older age, some men reconstruct the ideal masculinity to incorporate more attainable characteristics and control of and responsibility for their health. Storytelling is often used to portray masculine characteristics of physical toughness and risky behaviour that are no longer directly attainable. Engagement in one's health was found to be normalised through attending a men's shed. As a space, the men's shed promoted health through providing tangible support in the way of education and health screening, as well as social networks through which health responsibility was modelled.