New Data Shows a Shift in Young Men’s Attitudes Toward Masculinity

In 2024, as part of a project funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services, a consortium made up of the Foundation for Positive Masculinity (+M Foundation), Tomorrow Man, Tomorrow Woman, and SNA Toolbox joined forces to form The Common Ground Project - an ambitious national initiative to promote healthy perceptions of masculinity in schools.

The project sits within the Federal Government’s Healthy Mate initiative, which invested $3.5 million into three forward-thinking projects to support school-aged boys across the country.

About the Common Ground Project

The Common Ground Project is an applied research project designed to help young people of all genders rethink outdated gender stereotypes and create healthier, more respectful communities.

It takes a whole-of-community approach - working with students, parents, guardians, and educators - to understand and reshape how gender norms are learned and reinforced across the school environment.

Informed by practice principles and evidence from the DART Report, the project combines classroom curriculum, in-person workshops, and sophisticated social network analytics to measure real shifts in beliefs and influence.

Over two years, the project has worked with students in Years 7 to 11 across four nationally representative schools around Australia. The curriculum, developed by the +M Foundation, was delivered by teachers in Years 7-9, while Tomorrow Man and Tomorrow Woman delivered in-person workshops to students (Years 10-11), teachers, and parents.

What Informed the Evaluation

The evaluation was grounded in The Man Box framework, a globally recognised model for understanding how social norms and stereotypes influence male identity and behaviour. First developed in the early 1980s by Paul Kivel and the Oakland Men’s Project and later brought to the mainstream by Tony Porter, the framework examines the unspoken rules society places on men and boys — rules that can be narrow and damaging.

The research tracked how attitudes shifted across five key domains:

• Rigid Masculinity – Men must be tough, unemotional, and avoid vulnerability.
• Violence – Aggression and dominance are acceptable ways to show power.
• Self-Sufficiency – Men must never show weakness or ask for help.
• Homophobia – Policing or disapproving of men who don’t fit heterosexual masculine norms.
• Hypersexuality – A “real man” should pursue as many sexual partners as possible and never say no to sex.

This framework provided a robust evidence base to evaluate not just individual attitude change, but also the social dynamics that shape influence and behaviour among peer groups.

The Results So Far

The project evaluation, led by Dr Dean Lusher and the SNA Toolbox team, revealed some impressive early shifts in masculinity and gender attitudes.

Among Year 7 to 9 boys:

• 28% drop in boys holding the most rigid beliefs about gender and masculinity
• 27% drop in the social influence of those holding those rigid beliefs
• 11.5% decrease in beliefs that “men must never show weakness or ask for help”
• 11.5% decrease in the acceptability of aggression and violence as ways to show power
• 9.8% drop in rigid masculinity beliefs (e.g. men must be tough, unemotional, avoid vulnerability)
• 8.5% drop in homophobia

These shifts mean that not only are boys changing their own attitudes - the influence of hyper-masculine peers is weakening too. Change is occurring both at an individual and social level, transforming how boys think, act, and connect.

Among Year 10 and 11 boys, there was a:

• 41% drop in “harmful masculinity influence” - showing a strong shift away from rigid gender attitudes
• 39% decrease in the social influence of peers promoting harmful masculinities

Across all cohorts, meaningful reductions were recorded in the five “Man Box” attitudes: rigid masculinity, violence, self-sufficiency, homophobia, and hypersexuality.

Dr Lusher described the findings as “among the most impressive I’ve seen in 25 years of research.” Teachers, parents, and students echoed this sentiment, reporting visible improvements in how boys show up for themselves and each other.

Why It Matters

We’ve long known that the best form of treatment is prevention, and this pilot shows there’s real hope. Across four schools - government, independent, and Catholic - something quietly radical occurred.

The most entrenched attitudes among boys began to soften, and those who once held the strongest, most rigid views lost their influence. It’s proof that when we create space for reflection, empathy, and conversation, boys choose connection over conformity.

At its heart, this is a story of optimism - a generation of young people ready to build a safer, more equitable future for everyone.

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