Chapter 2: Undoing Gender with Leadership: The VUCA of College Men’s Masculinity and Developing Critical Consciousness Through Leadership Learning

The social expectations of men and how they perform masculinity constantly evolve, leading to an ongoing sense of volatility, uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity (VUCA). College can serve as a proving ground for men to develop identities typified by violence and misogyny or a setting where the possibilities of leadership can support men in developing healthier, more authentic versions of themselves.

Drawing on Colquitt’s (2020) and Edwards’s (2023) research, this chapter examines college-age men attempting to unlearn unhealthy masculinity to develop more authentic masculine identities. These approaches can provide insights for teaching leadership theory to college men in ways that support their ongoing development of healthy masculine identities and an expanded capacity for practicing leadership, thus better enabling them to navigate the uncertainties and difficulties of the world with vision, understanding, clarity, and agility (VUCA 2.0).