Large numbers of men benefit materially, socially and politically from patriarchy, but the advantages described as the 'patriarchal dividend' are not spread equally among men.1In other words, not all men are equally privileged. In this context, a key issue is how do men negotiate their identities as men within disadvantaged areas? This raises questions about the social and economic structures in which they live as well as about their cultural definitions of masculinities. Connell suggested that, 'Mascul inities are constructed, over time, in young people's encounters with a system of gender relations.'2Thus gender 'is something people do' and it varies across time and place.3. © 2011 by The Cork University Press. All rights reserved.