A Man's Work in a Female World? Gender Paradoxes of Male Childcare Workers
Introduction[1]The author wishes to thank Prof. Karen A. Shire for assistance with the translation of this article from German into English.
1 German pre-schools and childcare centers[2]The reference is to what are called Kindergärten (translated as pre-schools) and Kindertagesstätten (childcare centers) in German. Children from the age of three years are secured a place in a pre-school in Germany. Pre-school and childcare center staff are expected to have completed a vocational school training to become a care worker (Erzieher/in) in Germany. Although Erzieher/in literally translates as educator, given the location of training in the schooling rather than the university system, it is more equivalent to what in English is called a childcare worker. An important difference is, however, the standardisation of training in specific vocational school streams. are typically the subject of public discourse and political debates everytime the results of the international PISA studies are announced, or most recently, in light of the controversial discussions about expanding childcare centers and capacities for infants and children under the age of three years. The relevance of a gender perspective for understanding working life in childcare facilities has hardly been addressed either in the media or by research. From a critical perspective on the state of gender relations in society, the lack of attention to the gendering of childcare work is cause for concern, since, as Ursula Rabe-Kleberg argues, the pre-school is a social institution embedded in societal gender relations, characterised by segmentation and inequality (Rabe-Kleberg 10). This study focusses specifically on men and gendering in reference to masculinity in pre-schools and childcare centers in Germany. Although some authors (cautiously) contend that public interest is growing in the topic of men in child care and teaching occupations (Krabel/Stuve 7), the links between everyday working life in pre-schools and the reproduction of gender differences and traditional gender relations are neither addressed nor adequately examined. Thus for Jan Kasiske and his co-authors the question of whether mixed-gender work teams in childcare facilities develop a gendered division of labor or not is raised as an open question (Kasiske et al. 23), and one which the research presented here attempts to answer.
2 There are in fact very few studies in the sociology of gender which examine everyday working life and relations between men and women in either childcare or teaching occupations.[3]To my knowledge, Kaisa Kaupinnen-Toropainen/Johanna Laimi and Christine L. Williams were the first to do research on male childcare workers. While Williams' study focussed on care workers in an American kindergarten, the work of Kaupinnen-Toropainen/Laimi dealt with Scandinavian cases. Only recently has a qualitative study of male care workers in Germany been conducted; however, it focused mainly on the motivation of men to enter childcare occupations (Kasiske et al.). The absence of much prior research in this area of study is surprising in consideration of the gendering of childcare as an occupation. Childcare as an occupational field is extremely gender segregated, with the proportion of male childcare workers who have completed government training programs as licensed early childhood educators at only 1.7% (Kasiske et al. 22). This fact alone is enough to make the gendering of childcare occupations of interest to research in the sociology of gender, especially in light of the number of studies about women in men's occupations and men in women's occupations (e.g. Leidner; Hall; Heintz et al.; Williams, Gender Differences).
3 The analytical focus of this article is on everyday occupational life of male teachers in German pre-schools and male care workers in childcare centers.[4]The term "care workers" or "childcare workers" is used in this article to refer to both the staff of pre-schools and of childcare centers. In light of the minority status of men in this occupation, attention is paid particularly to tensions experienced by male care workers and how these tensions are dealt with in relation to identity formation. Are male childcare workers, as Zulehner und Volz suggest, the prototypical "new men,"[5]In a large-scale survey these authors find that 20% of German men view themselves as "new men." Among other things these "new men" can be characterized as "active fathers" who wish to participate more in the daily family life and the education of their children. The sole focus of the study on changes in men's attitudes has evoked critique, for example by Michael Meuser, who argues that shifts in attitudes should not be confused with changes in practice and behaviours (Meuser, "Ganze Kerle" 231). with implications for de-gendering and professionalising care work? Or are male childcare workers faced with the same structural disadvantages of female occupations, in addition experiencing contradictions in relation to their masculinity? In order to address these questions, the actions and experiences of male childcare workers are examined in relation to work colleagues, parents and the children with whom they interact on a daily basis as part of their work practice. The institutional dimensions of childcare occupations in Germany are also considered in analysing the experiences and tensions faced by male care workers in a female occupation.
4 The research presented here is based on work completed as part of a masters thesis at the University Duisburg-Essen. The empirical research involved a total of nine semi-structured interviews[6]All interviews were conducted in German and translated into English by the author. with male and female teachers in two pre-schools and two childcare centers located in Germany. Male and female teachers who work together in the same work groups were selected for interviews, and further interview partners were selected from different positions in the facility hierarchies, including group leaders and facility managers and directors. The interviews preceded a three-week observation of working life in the pre-schools and childcare facilities by the author, during which short interviews with the care workers observed were also conducted whenever possible or necessary. In addition to this qualitiative research, the analysis also covered secondary analysis of quantitative data on childcare employees. The study only covered childcare services offered in facilities, and did not cover home-based childcare work, another important site of childcare in Germany.
The division of labor and gender-based cooperation among co-workers in childcare facilities
5 As other research on women and men in atypical (for their gender) occupations has demonstrated (Heintz et al.; Kaupinnen-Toropainen/Lammi; Williams, World), mixed-gender work groups in childcare facilities tend to develop a "gender-constitutive" division of labor (see Wetterer). A consequence is the emergence of "gender-connotated niches" within work practice, important for understanding how men in female-dominated occupations "do gender." As Christine L. Williams has also observed, "doing masculinity" permits men in female-dominated work situations "to maintain a sense of themselves as different from and better than women —thus contributing to the gender system that divides men from women in a way that privileges men" (Williams, World 123).