Gender, the labour market, the workplace and policy in children's services: parent, staff and student attitudes

Abstract

This paper reports the attitudes of parents, staff and teacher education students towards the employment of men in the children's services 'industry'. The attitudinal survey questions were grouped around four distinct issues: gender roles, labour market behaviour, workplace behaviour and policy. Surprisingly, all three stakeholder groups surveyed expressed similar views on the four issues. While the results suggest that attitudes are not an impediment to increasing the number of male workers, they also suggest recruitment strategies need to be cognisant of both the potential advantages and disadvantages of a more gender-balanced workforce. The findings question policies based on the need to have male 'role models' in children's services.