Men are scarce in childcare: 'The problem is with the parents'

a-man-from-earth · 2023-05-07T05:22:40+00:00

Translation (courtesy Google):

Although they are scarce in childcare, hardly any efforts are made to find men who want to make a switch to childcare. That is a pity, says Gjalt Jellesma, chairman of the Association of Parents in Childcare. "Because more men on the work floor, that is an enrichment."

Staff shortages in the sector have been causing problems for years. "Childcare organizations are forced to take increasingly drastic measures due to the shortage," director Emmeline Bijlsma of the Childcare Branch Organization said earlier to NU.nl.

According to figures from Statistics Netherlands, 94 percent of employees in the sector are women. "There are many shortages in caring professions," says Ruben Fukkink, professor by special appointment of child care at the University of Amsterdam. "The shortages in childcare are getting out of hand. I sometimes think, don't these shortages also arise because men no longer knock there?"

No campaigns from organizations and government

The government is not making a policy to recruit more men in childcare, says a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. That is up to the childcare organizations themselves, says the spokesperson. "There is nothing in the law that prevents men from working in that industry."

But the organizations also do little to attract men to childcare. They seem to have almost given up. "This is mainly because parents often do not feel comfortable with male employees," says Fukkink.

That has several causes. "It's partly in our culture. People think parenting is something female. That's not a fact, but many adults still think that way," says the professor.

Scandals leave a bad taste

Another cause is the scandal surrounding Robert M., which made headlines ten years ago. M. was sentenced to nineteen years in prison plus TBS, after it emerged that he had abused dozens of children in Amsterdam daycare centers for years. That left a deep impression.

Fukkink: "Many male employees then felt uncomfortable in childcare. Things changed then and those changes can still be felt."

In cases of abuse, according to Jellesma, people automatically think of male perpetrators, although that is not always right. But that is difficult to explain to the parents. "When they see a man working in childcare, they often think: what inspires such a man to want to work with small children?"

And the industry suffers from this, also because research shows that children benefit from men in their environment. "They feel safe with men and women," says Fukkink. "And it is good for children to be cared for by both men and women."

It is important for childcare organizations that employees are a reflection of society, says Bijlsma. "Men are role models for both boys and girls. The variety is good for children's development."

Recruit men with men

The question is how we can get more men to work in childcare. "We know that a government campaign, for example, is not such a powerful tool, so I would approach it in a different way," says Fukkink. "You have to recruit men with other men." A man who already works in childcare is the best ambassador if you want to have more men in childcare.

And that does indeed help, says Ivo Hougardy, cluster manager at Montris Childcare. "If you put a tough guy on internship markets who can explain how much fun the work is, you get young boys excited."

Still, that won't solve the problem either, Fukkink thinks. "It will yield something, but thousands of men will not suddenly want to work in childcare."

“The problem is with the parents,” he points out. They must start thinking differently and accept men more in childcare. "And that will be a very long process."

Standard-Broccoli107 · 2023-05-07T17:16:10+00:00

Wait... are you trying to tell us that framing all men as predators reduces how many men want to work with kids?

No_Rope7342 · 2023-05-07T05:57:54+00:00

I would say pay is the main reason but I would say the stigma doesn’t help. Wouldn’t make the ratio even but probably would help a bit if it weren’t so bad.

philinspirit · 2023-05-09T04:33:12+00:00

As a childcare worker here in the US, I can say the discrimination against men in a broad array of female-dominated occupations is pervasive and takes many forms. In general, it is analogous to what happens, or used to happen when women first entered male-dominated occupations. The main difference was while bias against women led to the implicit assumption that women were less competent, bias against men leads, in addition to the assumption of incompetence, to intense fear. As described by other commenters, a man working in childcare is treated as though everyone is just waiting for him to commit a heinous crime against a child. Who wants to work in that kind of atmosphere?

It's not just the parents who are biased. It's other childcare workers, administrators, and members of the public -- everybody. Many of my fellow childcare workers, to give just one example, believe that many children are afraid of men to the extent that they will be traumatized if left alone with a man for even a few minutes, unless there is a female (any adult female) in the room. This bizarre belief is justified by the rationale that children who have experienced abuse by a man quite naturally may be fearful in the presence of another man. When I hear this rationale, I try to point out that while the majority of sexual abuse is indeed perpetrated by men, in fact physical abuse is much more common, and the majority of physical abuse of children is perpetrated by women. If children who are abused by a man often become afraid of all men, where are all the children who have become afraid of all women as a result of being abused by a woman?

But nobody seems to understand what I am trying to say. The obvious hypocrisy of progressive, educated individuals who abhor discrimination against women in male-dominated occupations, sanctioning the very same thing when practiced against men in childcare and other female-dominated occupations, seems lost on people. Even when the discrimination is admitted, the response is something like: "What do you expect?"

What I have heard from other male childcare workers is this: "Sooner or later, you will be accused."

And then we get to hear from feminists that the sole reason there are not more men working in childcare is that we are too greedy for the higher pay of other occupations.

monkey_gamer · 2023-05-09T07:49:05+00:00

the whole thing is dumb. it's like, we've had decades of abuse in childcare type settings? ah yes, the rational thing to do is stigmatise all forms of male child care and totally exclude males from caring for children. meanwhile complain that men aren't doing enough.

Title	Men are scarce in childcare: 'The problem is with the parents'
Author	a-man-from-earth
Upvotes	104
Comments	43
Date	May 7, 2023 5:17 AM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/13adrbd/men_are_scarce_in_childcare_the_problem_is_with/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/men-are-scarce-in-childcare-the-problem-is-with.1218597 https://theredarchive.com/post/1218597

Comments

No campaigns from organizations and government

Scandals leave a bad taste

Recruit men with men