Childcare should not be sole preserve of women

Few professions are as thoroughly dominated by one sex as childcare, in which just two per cent of workers are men. It is an issue identified at the very top. Indeed, the coalition agreement said this government would strive for “greater gender balance in the early years workforce”. Several reports and figureheads have since reiterated it as a concern. But two years on, we still await any sort of action to redress the balance.

Our feature, based on a visit to the Angel Community Nursery in London, managed by David Stevens, demonstrates the benefits that a male childcare worker can bring. It is often said that many fathers find childcare settings that are female-dominated to be intimidating and not at all men-friendly. But if the government is serious about delivering on its pledge, it needs to set out why it thinks it matters to have more men in childcare. The rationale for the pledge is currently unclear: is it to bolster the numbers for the sake of it, or to add value to the early years workforce?

If David Stevens’s approach is something to go by, men will tend to encourage a more rough-and-tumble, boisterous, risk-taking kind of play. Stevens happens to be a shaven-headed, tattoo-clad Chelsea fan, who is also a supremely able nursery manager. But men, like all people, are different, and so they will each offer a slightly different approach to childcare.

As well as an alternative style of social interaction, some believe the presence of men brings wider societal benefits, particularly for children who lack a father figure and male role model in their everyday lives. This was part of the stated rationale behind a recent campaign by Surrey Council to recruit more male childcare workers. However, being required to address social issues in this way is an overwhelming responsibility to shoulder and is not likely to serve as a compelling proposition to get more men into the workforce. Neither would be the apparent need to bulk up the statistics. Committed people across the children’s workforce – women and men – want and deserve rewarding careers that utilise their skills, adaptability and resilience in providing an environment for good care and learning. They do not want to be appointed on the basis of their sex. And despite (some might argue, because of) the paucity of men, the childcare workforce has made huge strides in recent years in improving the lives of under-fives and their families.

That all said, the two per cent figure is exceptionally tiny. Other children’s professions – social work, youth work, teaching – are far more balanced in their gender make-up. And this is where any government action has to start: we need to shift the conception of early years care and all that it brings as the preserve of women and start to try to dispel the unease that many parents might have over a male professional caring for their young children.

It is high time that the gender shift that has taken place in households over recent decades, where fathers take more responsibility for day-to-day nurture and care of their offspring, is replicated in the profession of childcare. This might take a generation to achieve, but it would be the sign of a more mature society.