When talking about men in early years services we first need to acknowledge the lack of men. Currently there is an estimated 25,000 early years workers in Ireland with less than 1% male (www.meninchildcare.net). We see this for ourselves quite easily when looking around an early years room and even the majority of Early Years courses and see that there are indeed few males involved in early years settings. We then need to ask the questions, why is this the case?
What are the Issues?
What are the issues with having none or few males working within early years services?
For children
- Many children grow up in a one parent family and may not have access to male role models until later in life
- Male children like to run, jump, play fight and this is often not encouraged in the settings
- We celebrate difference culturally but often not gender – equal opportunities
For Parents
- Fathers often find early years services too feminine / not male friendly
- Fathers often feel they have difficultly parenting without it being reinforced
- Women with bad experiences, benefit from meeting males in a safe environment
Staff groups
- A balanced staff team could lead to different approaches
Are there benefits from having men in early years?
When looking at some of the issues, we can see that there are benefits to having men working and involved in early years services. To name just a few:
- Children get a male perspective and outlook
- Fathers can benefit by having someone to relate to, they may feel more at ease
- More balance on staff team, enables them to look at issues in different ways
Why don’t more men do the job?
So, if it is beneficial, what then are the challenges that face men in doing the job:
- Societal perceptions; it is seen as ‘women’s work’, something that women are naturally good at, can questions ones masculinity
- Feeling isolated and lack of support
- Pay and working conditions are poor
- Professionalism of the sector and opportunities for job progression are limited
- Training is set up to attract females
So how do we increase the number of males working in early years settings?
‘Men In Childcare’ network are arguably global leaders in encouraging men to work in early years environments through a variety of men centred approaches. Please have at look at the Irish website here which also gives you links to their social media accounts.
What can we do as individuals or early years services to encourage more males to work in early years?
There are things that are too big for our control such as; pay rates, professionalisation etc, but here a few things that we can all try to do:
- Be open in your recruitment of men
- Have policies and procedures in place to protect both children and staff
- Communicate effectively with parents about your whole staff team
- Ensure specific support for men who may be working in isolation from other men, through good support and supervision practices and ensuring they are included as part of the team
- Involve Dads in your service (volunteer work, outings, activities)
