What you can do to help get more men in the early years

Within the Early Years sector, it’s not exactly raining men. It’s hardly even sprinkling, really.

This isn’t exactly breaking news, though — and that’s part of the problem.

These days, boosting gender equality in early education has more support from parents and practitioners than ever before. And with each generation, more and more men can see themselves working as educators and Early Years practitioners. 

Despite this, the share of men working in the Early Years hasn’t moved all that much in the past two decades.

So maybe it’s time we try something new?

In this article, we’re going to talk about where this problem comes from, and where we go from here. And to help shape that perspective, we’ll talk to Dr. Jeremy Davies. He’s the Head of Communications at the UK-based Fatherhood Institute, and leader of the Men in the Early Years network.

As he’ll explain down below, it might be time that we rethink why we’re pushing for more men in the sector. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot bigger than whether or not men are better at messy play.

Let’s see how we can get more men in the mix.

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Men in the Early Years is bigger than ‘practical benefits’

To start tackling this problem, it’s important to make sure we’re doing it for the right reasons.

You might have heard arguments pushing for more men in the Early Years, because they bring practical benefits: They’re positive male role models for children who don’t have fathers at home, or they’re great for rough-and-tumble play.

But as Jeremy Davies points out, these arguments suggest that men are just better at certain things — as if there’s some special secret to playing in the mud that only a man could know. If we’re pushing for gender equality in the Early Years workforce, fixating on these ‘practical benefits’ of men probably isn’t too helpful in the long run.

“These arguments put unreasonable demands on male practitioners because they assume that all men fit into some idealised model of masculinity. But if that’s our focus, where does it leave the female practitioners?” Jeremy asks. “That risks bringing us back to square one in some way, where children see their male and female practitioners doing these stereotypical gendered activities.”

We would never debate the ‘practical benefits’ to hiring a disabled practitioner, a Black practitioner, or anyone else. In those cases, we just understand that diversity is, in itself, a worthwhile cause. It’s about making sure every child grows up in an environment that reflects their own background, culture and identity. That’s just too important to condense into a concrete benefit or a statistic. 

So why treat the gender equality effort as a separate thing?

“When you encounter an Early Years group that’s good at gender in the workforce, you can bet they’re good at gender, full stop — and good at all forms of diversity and inclusion,” Jeremy says. 

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Where’d this problem come from, anyway?

This article just isn’t long enough to do justice to such a big question.

Most every practitioner, politician and parent understands the importance of teaching (and demonstrating) gender equality in early childhood. But when it comes to actually doing that, some people tend to drop off. 

We can point to a laundry list of reasons. Though maybe it’s more like a web, because a lot of these causes feed into one another, and reinforce the problem. 

While this is far from an exhaustive list, let’s touch on some of the biggest reasons why we’re missing men in the Early Years:

• We’re still dealing with the sexist idea that caring for children is women’s work. Unfortunately, this outdated notion still lives on in the corners of many people’s brains. And it shapes everything from politicians’ prioritisation of the sector, to parents’ feelings about male practitioners, to young mens’ ideas of which careers are for them.

• The issue doesn’t get enough funding or attention from the government. “If you’re a government minister, the first thing you’re bothered about is whether there are enough nurseries, how many children go through them, are the staff qualified, and so on,” Jeremy says. “And yes, if you’ve thought about it, you might want to get some more men in there. But it just has never been that big a priority.”

• Some parents aren’t comfortable with men working in childcare. In one 2018 study, 79% of surveyed parents wanted to challenge the gender stereotypes confronting their young children. But in Jeremy’s experience, nearly every male educator he’s spoken with has experienced parents objecting to their presence. He says this points to a bigger need for practitioners and parents discussing this issue together.

But regardless of the cause, Jeremy says one thing’s for certain: Change needs to come from within the sector.

“Most everybody gets that gender equality is a good thing, but there’s a difference between understanding that, and actively engaging in changing things,” he says.

The good news is, making a difference is probably easier than you think.

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