Opinion

Men at work

While childcare may no longer be seen as 'women's work', there are still far too few men in the sector, says Sue Cowley.

As educators, one of the key ways we help our children to learn is by modelling the kind of society in which we want them to live.

We encourage them to be helpful, polite and respectful, to behave well and to treat other people as they hope to be treated themselves. We show them what it means to live in a diverse society. We help them understand how all people can be treated as equals, rather than some having greater opportunities than others, through an accident of birth.

I can regularly be heard bemoaning a lack of diversity, when I see yet another education conference line-up containing only white male faces. I frequently rail against 'recommended education book' lists with only a single woman on them, and no black or minority ethic representation at all. When I raise this as an issue, I am sometimes told to 'stop making a fuss', or given the standard brush-off: 'Well, we only picked the best'. But there is another area where we need to consider diversity, and that is in the worrying lack of male practitioners in our sector.

What are the reasons for this absence of men in our settings? Historically, childcare was seen as 'women's work'. But we live in the 21st century now: there are many homes (including my own) where the man takes on the majority of the childcare duties. Perhaps the issue is with the low wages and lack of recognition for what early years workers do? Perhaps there is a subconscious distrust from some of men who like working with small children? It is certainly not seen as 'prestigious' to work in the sector: there is a general lack of understanding about the intellectual as well as the caring elements of what we do.

So how can we solve the problem? We can encourage men to train as practitioners and to apply for posts. We can proclaim loudly to Government about how vital the early years are for all that follows (more equal female representation in Parliament would surely help). What we really need, though, is proper investment in staff, with early years professionals being paid the kind of wages teachers earn. For that to happen, politicians will have to accept that an hour of childcare must cost more than a fancy take-away coffee.