'Berated, frozen out, colluded against...' why one male practitioner knows he is definitely not welcome

I'm obsessed with lager, football, and bacon sandwiches, and need coaxing with at least one of the above to take an active interest in anything.

In fact, none of that is true, but as one of the 2 per cent of male employees within a large chain of nurseries it’s held as an axiomatic and firmly-held perception by my many female colleagues. There are well-rehearsed disadvantages faced by boys in the early years of their education attributable to the female-dominated environment in which they find themselves. Nursery World in recent weeks has even included a contribution from a female practitioner describing boys as ‘disruptive’. ‘Disruptive of what?, asked a male practitioner subsequently. The chain makes frequent public exhortations to include more men in early years teaching – yet the anti-male views within the organisation are, in reality, pervasive and deeply held.
‘The problem we have is that you’re male,’ confided an experienced, and exceptionally hostile, female colleague recently. ‘No offence, but you think and behave in a very male way.’ No, I certainly don’t take offence at being described as male, but it is interesting to contemplate the hoo-ha that would ensue if the protagonists had been reversed.
Recent news from the Teaching Agency,  that the rate of men starting a career in primary teaching was growing at five times the rate of women, is welcome from the point of view of more male role models – who are less likely to see ‘boyish’ behaviour as bad behaviour – but, if the early years sector is anything to go by, they will find scant welcome from their female colleagues.