The role of the "wounded healer" can have positive effects for former offenders as regards desistance and social (re)integration; however, research focusing on wounded healing/peer mentoring from a gender perspective is limited. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Swedish peer support organizations (PESOs) for former offenders and qualitative interviews with former offenders working in five different PESOs, this study analyses how masculinity and support are performed and narrated by 15 wounded healers/peer mentors (men = 11, women = 4, age range 19-60 y/o). It contributes to knowledge about gendered power dynamics of peer support by showing that while masculinity can and do function as capital in peer support work, some displays of masculinity can trigger trauma, with negative consequences for women within PESOs.

Even if peer support is commonly defined as horizontal in contrast to the more hierarchical relationship between client and professional, peer support is not free from power dynamics. This article considers feminist organizing in the context of peer support for people with experiences of criminalization and substance abuse and addresses questions of (un)equal peer support, sexual victimization, (re)integration, and organizational change in the #MeToo era. Drawing on qualitative interviews with support organization representatives and discussion material from a study circle and a men’s group, this article analyses one organization’s framing of, and responses to, allegations of sexual victimization of female members, and their ongoing work toward increased equality. The study shows that a number of measures have been taken in the organization in order to give voice to women whose lives are affected by crime, imprisonment, violence, and drug abuse. Interview participants put strong emphasis on the need to counteract what is described as a “macho culture” embedded in the peer support organization (PESO), which is seen as repeating structures of masculinity and power from the previous criminal lifestyle as well as reproducing specific gendered vulnerabilities. The organization’s patriarchal structure is understood as connected to a culture of silence that has allowed for sexism and marginalization of female members to continue. The women’s lived experiences of trauma within peer support practices and their struggles to redefine the foundations of their organization emphasizes the lived gendered emotionality of peer support, and uncovers how power structures can be challenged by putting the gendered lived experiences of women with a history of criminalization and substance abuse in the center of ex-offender peer support.