A New Network Begins: Reflections on Movement-Building

Keynote Address by Jens van Tricht for the launch of the Korean MenEngage Network (K‑MEN)

The Korean MenEngage Network (K‑MEN) officially launched in July 2025 in Seoul, following two years of groundwork by Korean feminist and gender equality organizations.

Former MenEngage Global Board member and Emancipator founder Jens van Tricht attended the launch, having collaborated with K‑MEN co-coordinator Goldie (Myoung Ryoon) Kim in various capacities that helped form the network. He delivered this keynote address sharing his hopes for K‑MEN and highlighting K‑MEN’s connection to his and Emancipator’s work.

Dear K‑MEN, dear audience, 

Gamsa Habnida

Bangap supnida

K‑MEN bal chogul chuka hamnida

My name is Jens van Tricht. I am the founder of Emancipator, the Dutch organization for men and gender justice. And I am the author of ​‘Why Feminism Is Good for Men’, which was translated in Korean as ​‘Men’s Liberation’.

The existence of Emancipator was inspired by the MenEngage Global Alliance, and we have been an active member from the beginning. I was a member of the steering committee and co-coordinator for the MenEngage Europe network for many years, and also a board member to the global alliance for some years. At this moment still, my Emancipator colleague Jip Mars is a member of the Steering Committee and co-coordinator for MenEngage Europe. 

I want to congratulate you with the launch of K‑MEN. It is so important to work together on networking, capacity building and advocacy to engage boys and men in gender justice. We are clearly part of the problem so we clearly have to become part of the solution.

For me, finding MenEngage was a kind of homecoming, connecting with people from around the world who have similar insights and feelings about what is needed in the world, about injustice, and about transforming masculinity. For the first time really, I felt I don’t need to justify why I am focusing on boys and men and masculinities, but instead we could focus together on how we do it, and learn from each other and support each other.

One such collaboration was the creation of the IMAGINE toolkit, for workshops with boys in schools, about gender, masculinity and violence prevention, together with our Swedish and British MenEngage partners, in 2016 – 2018.

In 2022, Goldie came to visit us in The Netherlands to learn to work with the IMAGINE toolkit, she came back here and trained 518 trainers to work with the toolkit. She also brought back my book to be translated into Korean, and GET‑P organized a book tour in 2023 in Seoul, Busan, Jeju and Gwangju. And GET‑P became the first Korean member of MenEngage. 

And so here we are now, at the launch of K‑MEN, with this room full of wonderful people and organizations, committed to making boys and men part of the solution for gender justice and to making gender justice part of the solution for improving the lives of boys and men. 

And what a wonderful name! After K‑POP we now have K‑MEN changing the world, transforming Korean masculinities and making Korean society a better place for all!

I am convinced that K‑MEN will contribute importantly to the next phase of Korean society in particular and the evolution of the human species in general. I hope K‑MEN will be able to offer new, hopeful, and inspiring perspectives for Korean boys and men to liberate themselves from patriarchal masculinities and to embrace their humanness, to promote inclusive and democratic behaviours and to support the emergence of a just and peaceful society for all.

Look around in this room, once again it is women changing the world for the better, by improving conditions for men to also become part of that positive change, by promoting equitable and democratic masculinities in both social and political structures and in the real life lived experiences of men, women and other genders.

Let it be clear: MenEngage is not a men’s movement, it’s a feminist movement for gender justice. We are standing on the shoulders of giants, all those women who fought their lives for equal rights, for gender justice, for democracy, for humanity. MenEngage is a truly intersectional global movement of men and women and people identifying otherwise, striving for a world in which all people can freely, equally and safely develop themselves as the full humans they truly are. 

I’m happy to quote one of these giants here. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote, in her ​‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, in 1792: ​“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world”

Congratulations K‑MEN, congratulations to you all, and good luck! We are all looking forward to learning from your experiences and achievements!