Conclusion and Recommendations

Men who work as professional caregivers find meaning and pride in their work, and generally feel respected by others in their profession, as well as outside of the profession. They still face stigma, tied to the stereotypical gendered belief that women are more naturally suited to care work, and men to competitive work. Some talk of being met with surprise, laughed at or, particularly for men in early care and education, met with suspicion as men working in these female-dominated professions. Men, particularly those who work in early care and education, feel that the low pay associated with care work reflects society failing to value it. Still, though men in early education in particular would like to see higher wages, most of the men we spoke to in our focus group of 13 professional male caregivers said they view their care work as careers for a lifetime, with opportunities to learn and advance, and would encourage other men to pursue professional care work.

Caring professions include some of the fastest growing jobs as society ages, and among the most future-proof jobs as care work is not easily replaced by technology or automation. Because men tend to earn more than women and male-dominated fields tend to pay higher wages and offer more stability, increasing the share of men in care work could potentially also lead to higher wages and decent and dignified work, instead of the poverty wages, unstable hours, and lack of benefits. To attract and retain more men in caring professions, workplaces, public policies and cultural attitudes must shift:

Transform culture to support men in caring professions

• Change the narrative. Highlight the challenges, competencies required, and rewards of care work, that it can be complex and require special skills, and dispel stereotypes that it is drudgery, unchallenging, or “women’s work.”
• Share stories that feature professional male caregivers, continue to provide role models and normalize men as equal and fully capable caregivers in both private and public settings.
• Openly address the stigma men face in the caring professions, particularly early care and learning, as norm violators.
• Recognize that most married mothers point to their husbands as the people they trust most to care for their children other than themselves. This same trust must be extended to men in professional childcare settings.

Improve education, training, and work pathways to create a gender-equal care workforce

• Create role model opportunities for mentorship between professional caregiver men and students at the high school and college level.
• Create more pathways for men to enter professional caring professions. At the educational level, actively recruit young men to take classes, training or pursue degrees to become professional caregivers. At the organizational level, health organizations and early care and learning centers should recruit, train, and support men as professional care providers.
• Recruit family caregiving men into caregiving professions like direct care and home health.
• Improve school security practices so that parents and guardians can rest assured that their child is safe through comprehensive background checks on all individuals who work with children.
• Schools and school districts provide clear policies and guidance to students, teachers and parents on what sort of touch is allowed between early care and education teachers and children. Strict “no touch” policies may not be realistic for young children. Thus, defining unambiguous parameters about what is acceptable is crucial.
• Provide unconscious bias training to create awareness and more welcoming environments in schools, training and workplaces for men, particularly men of color, in health and early care and learning professions.
• Actively open up management and leadership positions for women in professional caring professions and work to reduce the unconscious gender bias that can mean women’s voices are not heard nor their opinions as respected as their male colleagues’.

Invest in the care economy

• Create and pass public policies that require and support decent wages, benefits, stable schedules that offer flexibility, and dignified work for professional care workers.
• Provide a public, universal paid family and medical leave program to people of all genders and normalize the expectation that men, as capable caregivers, need to take it.