Engaging men and boys in gender justice through pro-feminist podcasts:potential benefits, challenges, and risks

This article explores pro-feminist podcasting as an emergent approach to engaging men and boys in gender justice. In recent years, an increasing number of podcasts have surfaced which implicitly or explicitly espouse pro-feminist praxis. However, scholarship in this area remains underexamined. This article seeks to move the literature forward by 1) situating pro-feminist podcasting within the wider multi-disciplinary literatures on critical podcasting pedagogies; 2) sharing examples from the current landscape of English-language pro-feminist podcasts; and 3) discussing the potential benefits, challenges, and risks of this approach. In doing so, this article considers how pro-feminist podcasts have the potential to expand men’s engagement efforts to wider audiences, provide new accessible entry points, and help facilitate ways to bring together and mobilise groups of pro-feminist men. However, there are several challenges and tensions involved in pro-feminist podcasting - as is the case with other forms of engaging men and pro-feminist allyship - which demonstrate that this work should be undertaken with care, ongoing reflexivity, and accountability. Overall, this article seeks to start a conversation about the potential of podcasting in the field of engaging men and boys and to draw attention to the need for further work and research in this area.