Policies and Gender roles

Jan Peeters Ghent University

World Forum Belfast

1986-’96: European Commission Childcare Network :

•  give women equal opportunities on labour market

•  men need to take up more responsibilities in household

1991: Quality in ECE 1992: EU Council of ministers:

Recommendation on Childcare 1995: Forty Quality Targets in ECE 2002: Barcelona targets: 30% places for under threes

90% places for three to six

Gender Equality Program: ECE on

political agenda of the EU

•  Quality in ECE (1991): discussion paper

•  Leave arrangements to parents •  Men as carers: (1993): ECE as

place for new culture of childcare •  Forty Quality Targets (1995)

European Commission Childcare Network

1986-1996:

1992: EU Council of ministers

Recommendation on Childcare: Promote and encourage increased participation of men

European Social Fund: funded several projects to attract men for ECE jobs

Gender Equality Program: ECE on

political agenda of the EU

Beginning of 2000 •  Crisis of Care: labour shortage in care jobs •  Female training level is higher than male

training level

Men in care jobs should replace women in care jobs with low qualification

Ageing of industrialised societies (Equal Opportunity Commission UK, 2003; OECD, 2006)

Men in Childcare Jan Peeters University Gent Belgium

•  Women are overrepresented in all sectors related to children: e.g. primary school

•  The Netherlands: 85%

•  UK: 86%

•  Denmark: 76%

Gendering is related to age of the children: the younger the child, the higher the gendering

Why so many women and so few men in ECE?

Men in Childcare Jan Peeters University Gent Belgium

•  Men in non-traditional occupations have less to gain and much to lose

•  Salary: not the main reason

•  Gendered work assumes a female workforce

•  ECE is considered a female task

Unconsciously embedded in childcare: female work. Childcare is based on mother care.

Why so many women and so few men in ECE?

Crèche parentale, Acidules et Croques, Paris

Gender neutral policy and gender pedagogy

Parental run ECE with high involvement of fathers attract male workers

European ‘Care’ research project (Cameron, Moss, 2007)

• Comparison between England, Hungary and Denmark

• Hungarian ECE is seen as most ‘female’(care, protection)

• Danish as most ‘masculine’

( independence of children)

Gender neutral policy and gender pedagogy

Men in Childcare Jan Peeters University Gent Belgium

What can policy makers do to increase the employment of men? • ECE is not going to become mixed-gender of itself

• Sustained commitment and policy priority for at least ten years (Moss, 2003)

• Make explicit reference to men and fathers in policy documents

• Increase professional status through emphasis on training and qualification (Cameron, 2003; Rolfe, 2005)

• Gender neutral name for profession (Wohlgemuth, 2003; Peeters, 2004)

Men in Childcare Jan Peeters University Gent Belgium

What can policy makers do to increase the employment of men? Success stories: sustained commitment, policy priority and high professional status through emphasis on training and qualification in Norway and Denmark

• Norway: 9%,

• Denmark: 5% ( 0-3)

8% integrated centres,

up to 25% in out of school

• gender neutral name: pedagogue

• Campaigns (Be, Dk, Norw, Eng, Scotl)

Men in Childcare Jan Peeters University Gent Belgium

Make training more men friendly Success stories: • Qualified men are not available: training has great potential (EU)

• Men-only orientation programs: Scotland 700 men

•  A male training mentor (UK, France)

• Career education and guidance (Belgium)

• Change nature of work and training (DK)

• Keep men in: in-service training for male workers (Norway)

Who are the men in ECE? Qualitative research Ghent University

(Vandenbroeck, Peeters, 2008)

2003: in depth interview with 36 of the 54 male workers 2006: in depth interview with • 60 students from secondary professional school • 16 students from adult

education 2008: screening training

Conclusions • Most men: a rethought career. •  adult education is the best condition to attract more men in the sector. • Providing appropriate career information about ECE for boys and young males. • The recruitment methods have to focus more on men who have worked with children as volunteers in child, youth or sports clubs.

Conclusions • Men-only courses and the support of male mentors . • High level of professionalism offers chances of attracting men for ECE, but increasing the salaries is not enough. •  Improving the quality of training into a more men-friendly direction.

Conclusions

•  ECE services, profession and training have to

be remodelled towards a more men-friendly culture. (Vandenbroeck, Peeters,

2008) Screening training on gender bias •  emphasis on more social issues and on outdoor and. •  part-time jobs negative effect. •  sustained commitment and policy priority is required for a period of at least ten years.

sports

Collaboration with other European networks

Men in Childcare

http://www.meninchildcare.eu www.childrenineurope.org www.meninchildcare.com www.decet.org

Thank you