Where are the men in early childhood?

Last year we reported on the formation of the EC-MENz group which supports men working in early childhood education. New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of male early childhood teachers in the OECD, at around 1%. This makes early childhood teaching one of the most gender segregated occupations in the labour force (more gender segregated than fire-fighters! )

Much of the debate about male teachers has been focussed on views about the effect on children and in particular boys, but another important consideration is that of occupational segregation. A number of barriers to men’s participation in early childhood teaching have been identified. They include inadequate pay, low status and fears of accusations of abuse. But underlying that, in our opinion, are deep seated beliefs about the respective roles of men and women.

Check out the EC-MENz website www.ecmenz.org/, not only does it provide information about networks but also provides some useful links to research and other sites on the issue.