Poor pay and conditions are among the barriers that prevent men from working with children, a conference on men in childcare was told yesterday
Opened by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Catherine Byrne, the Gender and Caring - Men in Childcare conference focused on the importance of men in childcare and their contribution to early childhood development.
It also offered support to men working in the childcare sector through the Men in Childcare network.
Phil Lynch, regional training and quality specialist at Galway Ippa, the early childhood organisation, said men are kept away from the industry because of poor pay and conditions, public perceptions and fears and a lack of information.
"It is very difficult to rear a family on the wages, for men and for women," she said. "There is also a lack of information through career guidance in schools."
As part of her research, Ms Lynch surveyed childcare courses in Galway and found that of 470 participants, only three were men.
Ms Lynch recommended the Government set targets for recruiting men into childcare and that strategies to raise the status of the sector and ensure improvement in pay and conditions for men and women be put in place.
A report presented at the conference by Dr Margaret Fine-Davis, of the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies in Trinity College Dublin, found over 95 per cent of respondents to a study on childcare wished to see more men in the industry.
The reasons given were better gender balance, equality, skills that men bring to the occupation, and the fact that male childcare workers provide a role model of men as carers.
