Managing Equality and Diversity, Part 8: Gender - In the balance

'Your odds are stacked against you if you employ a man. We know paedophiles are attracted to working with children. I’m sorry, but they’re the facts.’ These comments from former leader of the House of Commons and two-time candidate for leader of the Conservative Party Andrea Leadsom outraged early years practitioners when she made them in 2016. A source close to her later said she had not suggested men could not be good nannies. Sadly the sexist comments, which fly in the face of the Equality Act 2010, are views that some parents share.

Societal perceptions of men in childcare are quoted as one of the reasons so few choose the profession. Only around 2 per cent of the early years workforce are male. However, inclusive early education can only be truly achieved when delivered by a gender-balanced workforce. In Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Early Years Education, Kath Tayler and Deborah Price suggest men and women working alongside each other ‘can only be beneficial for children as it shows them that bringing up the next generation is a job that women and men share equally and that it is valued by society’.