Michael Conroy

Michael Conroy, secondary educator and founder of the training organisation Men At Work, examines the social construction of masculinity and its consequences for boys, men and wider society. Drawing on sixteen years in English secondary schools and work in youth mental health and suicide prevention, he argues that masculinity functions as a set of cultural codes that confer privilege while imposing emotional restriction, competitive aggression and hierarchical dominance. These codes, he contends, are neither natural nor beneficial to males themselves but serve to sustain patriarchal relations and stand in opposition to a fuller, shared humanity. Through structured dialogue with boys and young men, Conroy explores how expectations around clothing, emotional expression, sexuality, risk-taking and violence are absorbed from pornography, media, peers and family, often from a very young age. He links these patterns of socialisation to coercive behaviours, sexual entitlement and resistance to women’s hard-won rights, while insisting that preventive conversation can create space for boys to question inherited scripts and choose more respectful and authentic ways of being.