Media releases

A new book showcasing the Men’s Shed movement in Australia and overseas makes a case to broaden their membership to sometimes include women and young people and be more culturally diverse.

Shoulder to Shoulder: Broadening the Men’s Shed Movement, edited by Federation University Australia Honorary Professor Barry Golding, was launched today, and looks at the evolution of the Men’s Shed movement and the challenges it has faced during the global pandemic.

The book concludes that the key to the movement’s growth and survival is diversification of its membership to include a broad spectrum of ages from young people, to men in aged care facilities, as well as women and people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Men’s Sheds are homely local spaces where men can come together to work on physical projects like furniture-making and gain social connection and support from one another.

Based on research from the book, the median age of a Men’s Shed member is in Australia is 70 years old, but younger in some countries including Ireland.

The book features 131 case studies of Men’s Sheds across Australia and internationally.

It highlights the ways Sheds were able to pivot during the global COVID-19 pandemic from face-to-face involvement to virtual tutorials, food parcel drop-offs and ‘Men’s Shed Radio’, established by the Australian Men’s Shed Association.

The movement began in 1993 with ‘The Shed’ in rural Goolwa, SA, with the first Men’s Sheds by that name established in 1998 in both Victoria and NSW.

Now, there are more than 2,700 men’s sheds worldwide and an increasing number of Women’s Sheds, which began in 2010.

The book is a collaborative work, with input from academics in Canada, Ireland, USA, Sweden, Denmark and Australia, including Federation University’s Associate Professor Annette Foley, who co-authored a chapter on research evidence from Sheds.

To purchase Shoulder to Shoulder: Broadening the Men’s Shed Movement, visit https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/shoulder-to-shoulder

Quotes attributable to Federation University Honorary Professor Barry Golding

“Men’s Sheds are predominantly volunteer-run, grassroots, community organisations that do incredible work in and for their communities.”

“After the initial book in 2015, I wanted to check in on the movement to see how it was coping during the global pandemic and the case studies have revealed amazing stories of how the movement pivoted from in-person support, to dropping food parcels off at one another’s doors, to Zoom tutorials on how to turn a piece of wood.”

“This book has documented the positive impact of Men’s Sheds on the health and wellbeing of men, their families and their local communities.”

“And I argue, in order to thrive and survive, Men’s Sheds need to broaden their reach to both younger and older people, as well as women and people with a range of cultural backgrounds.”

“This survival will be important with the likely higher demand for Men’s Sheds during post-COVID recovery.”