Masculinity: Masking the Vulnerabilities — A Gender Training Manual for Boys

Abstract

Gender equity is not just a goal - it’s a shared journey that includes everyone, especially young boys and men. While many initiatives focus on empowering girls and women, boys are often left out, even though they play a vital role in challenging patriarchy and creating a fairer world.

This training manual, designed for boys aged 13 to 18 in Koppal, North Karnataka, India, takes a gender-equity and gender-transformative approach. It helps them reflect on power, privilege, and their own lived experiences, while understanding how gender, caste, class, religion, and other social factors shape the world around them.

Through interactive and activity-based sessions, the training offers a safe, playful, and reflective space where boys can explore questions about gender identity, emotions, sexuality, and social expectations.

The manual includes five modules, each guiding participants through a process of self-discovery and unlearning - supporting them to understand identity, express emotions, SRHR, and question toxic masculinity. This process encourages empathy, critical thinking, and connection - guiding boys to unlearn harmful stereotypes and grow into allies who stand for fairness and respect. By weaving together self-awareness and social change, the program plants seeds of a generation that values equality not as charity, but as a shared way of life.