Oxfam-supported projects looking at gender equity, poverty and men in the UK highlight the fact that links between men's attitudes, their roles, and employment need further investigation. Would UK policy makers do well to embrace the concept of gender taken from international development, thus avoiding a scattergun approach which problematises women or men separately and ignores the relations between them?

Three small-scale initiatives in England and Scotland, supported by Oxfam, work with men in community settings: support for teenage fathers on an isolated housing estate near Hull; shop-front drop-in community resource centre in Salford to help build the skills and confidence of long-term unemployed men and community health project participatory appraisal for residents of Glasgow's East End.

Men have very different attitudes towards participating in projects intended to address their problems. Further project findings include:

• The decline in full-time paid employment, especially for men, has left men unclear about their roles. Where do they fit in to what seems increasingly a woman’s world?

• Project workers find it difficult to contact men and therefore to involve them in community projects.

• Young men and women have different everyday problems: territorial barriers imposed by gangs, for example, are very real for boys, but irrelevant for girls.

• In relation to parenting, boys concentrate on their role as a provider whereas girls have a more holistic and socialised view of parental responsibilities.

• Involving older unemployed men is difficult as their self-image is wedded to paid employment but younger men are more likely to take training if on offer.

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