Men as promoters of change in ECEC? An international overview

ABSTRACT

This paper gives an overview of international developments towards gender balance in the ECEC workforce in the last three decades. Research results on the role of male and female ECEC professionals and strategies for recruiting more men are reflected against goals of gender diversity and equality. As the overview shows, attitudes towards male workers and strategies for increasing participation of men are rooted in diverse and often contradictory assumptions about the ‘nature’ of men and women, their role in children’s gendered development, and the relevance of ECEC for gender equality in general. It is concluded that gender-mixed teams in ECEC institutions need gender-conscious reflection and ongoing development of gender-sensitive pedagogy. Moreover, strategies for employing more men in ECEC have to be embedded in a discourse on gender equality in wider society.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• men in ECEC
• cross-country comparison
• ECEC policy
• gender balance

Acknowledgments

The author wants to thank Prof. Kari Emilsen, Dr Ramazan Sak, Prof. Jo Warin, and Dr Yuwei Xu for the provision of data and for relevant comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. With the term ‘gender balance’ I refer to the inclusion of men and women in the workforce in a framework of gender equality and reflexivity. In this context, ‘balance’ stands for a greater share of men in the workforce, but as well for a reflection of gender biases in routines and behaviours in a traditionally ‘feminine’ field, and a well-balanced personality of all workers, either men, women or queer.

2. The source specifies the proportion of male teachers in France and the Netherlands above 10%; this is due to statistical definitions which don’t match the situation in ECEC in these countries (personal communications).