Heard the one about the male nanny? He says he wouldn't swap his job for anything, as Simon Vevers discovers When women have broken into previously male-dominated jobs, they have usually had to battle against a tidal wave of chauvinism. Men venturing into childcare have found themselves up against similar prejudices - but they rarely do so under the media spotlight. This makes the small, but growing, number of men who have succeeded in becoming nannies all the more remarkable.
Heard the one about the male nanny? He says he wouldn't swap his job for anything, as Simon Vevers discovers
When women have broken into previously male-dominated jobs, they have usually had to battle against a tidal wave of chauvinism. Men venturing into childcare have found themselves up against similar prejudices - but they rarely do so under the media spotlight. This makes the small, but growing, number of men who have succeeded in becoming nannies all the more remarkable.
And yet for Peter Johnstone it's the most natural thing in the world. With a grandmother who was a foster parent and a mother who is a childminder, 27-year-old Peter, from Linlithgow in Scotland, believes it was 'in his genes' to take up a career in childcare.
Peter explains, 'When I was growing up my mum's childminding meant there were always children in the house. And when I was given a career assessment at secondary school, one of the options that came out of the computer was to become a nursery nurse, but at that time I never gave it a second thought.' Peter now works as a part-time nanny in nearby Bathgate, seven miles from Glasgow, looking after three boys aged five, three and one. He spent five years working for an insurance company, progressing from the mail room to become a claims negotiator. It was a job, but not a vocation. 'I wasn't interested in the work, didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing it.' His mother knew someone running a private nursery and after a few days there, Peter realised that he had found 'something I felt passionate about'.
Encouraged by his female colleagues at the nursery, Peter completed a two-year Higher National Certificate in Childcare and Education. As if to remind him he was entering a still predominantly women's world, Peter was the only man among 32 students on the course at the West Lothian college. And traditional prejudices soon surfaced. One placement refused to take on a male student and only decided to reconsider its attitude after Peter's college 'kicked up a fuss'. Peter also encountered fathers who were not happy for a man to change the nappies of their daughters.
Cedric Martinez says that damaging innuendoes and assumptions need to be challenged if more men are to be encouraged into childcare, especially when the Government is seeking a massive expansion of the sector. After nannying for several years, the 26-year-old from Grenoble in south-east France now combines successful careers in modelling and rock music. But before landing a two-and-a-half year stint caring for three young boys, he recalls attending an interview where one of the first questions was about his sexuality. 'If I had been applying for any other job, this would have amounted to sex discrimination and I would have been able to sue them,' he says.
But the tide is turning, slowly. Marcia Delaney runs Delaney International, a Guildford-based nanny and childcare agency and, as an executive member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's childcare division, she is a strong advocate for men becoming childcarers. While she has not placed male nannies, she has found an increasing acceptance of male au pairs. 'I'm in favour of this change, although it's a slow process and means challenging the traditional viewpoint that women should be the childcarers,' she says. 'Unfortunately, deep-rooted concerns about having a male au pair are prevalent, based on generalisations, worst-case scenarios, ignorance and tradition. Today most people would agree that men are now seen to be just as capable of doing housework and entertaining the children. Though people often assume that a woman will have better cooking skills, it is worth remembering that 75 per cent of leading chefs are male.'
Marcia continues to press the Home Office to relax restrictions on foreign workers and extend the number of legitimate sources of childcarers for parents who need them. Until the early 1990s it was illegal for a male au pair to enter the UK from a non-EEC country. Marcia believes that the changing nature of the labour market, with women often replacing men as the family's main breadwinner and fathers taking more responsibility for childcare, along with the rise in single parents, is changing the culture in childcare recruitment. She detects signs of change not just in Britain, but also internationally. 'Perhaps it's indicative of the greater acceptance of a man's role in childcare today that increasingly I find myself dealing with male au pair agents overseas. For example, I now contact Tom in Munich when I want German au pairs, and I have a male agent in Turkey too.'
Sue Voller-Adam has had a string of male au pairs, mainly from the Czech Republic, looking after her nine-year-old son Max and six-year-old daughter Beth. She says they have worked out well. 'Their eyes are less likely to glaze over when my son suggests a trip to the park to play football. I think male au pairs are also likely to be more active in taking the kids swimming, having a go on the playstation or playing with Lego.' Her au pairs usually come for six-month stints, but she has kept in touch with most and three of them have returned to stay as guests. Her current au pair, 25-year-old Pavel, arrived in September. 'OK, so the creases in my clothes may not be 110 per cent,' says Sue. 'But he's a fantastic guy who is great with the children and does the housework really well.' Sue, a clinical nurse specialist in substance misuse, says, 'Initially I wanted a male influence around the house because I was bringing the children up on my own, and I was worried about taking responsibility for someone else's daughter. We are a very active family and we like camping and hiking, and I think male au pairs are probably more adaptable to that.' Generally there is a recognition today of the need in the female-dominated early years for boys, whether they live with one parent or two, to have more male role models. Casey Grady and her husband Andrew Christie, with high-profile careers respectively in advertising and television, have twice taken on male nannies to care for their two boys, six-year-old Robson and three-year-old Jamie. They say they're mystified at people's misgivings about it. They are still in contact with their first nanny, Stan, and they describe their current nanny, 30-year-old Mark Gadsden, as 'a dream'.
Mark came with an extensive CV after nannying for several years. 'We knew we had found the right person because he was still in touch with previous families he'd worked for and continued to babysit for their kids,' says Casey. 'We know that he keeps our boys stimulated with visits to the park to play football and he takes them, without prompting, to the zoo or museums. Mark is on our wavelength, and we know the children are well looked after.' Andrew says he has never had any qualms about having male nannies and believes they should be judged on their childcaring abilities, rather than ill-informed presumptions.
Mark himself advises men seeking work as nannies not to lose heart and says they should be registered with agencies to ensure they are placed with suitable families. Unlike many male nannies, he has had no trouble finding work in recent years because of his long experience in the field, starting at first as a mother's help.
'My dad was a bit horrified at first, but now my family is fine about my chosen career,' says Mark. 'There's always a reaction, and sometimes I wish I did something else. But it's such a rewarding job, being there for the kids and watching them develop; I love it and I can't, at the moment, imagine doing anything else. I suppose it's a bit like acting as a third parent. I have a friend who has just turned 40 and he is still nannying, so hopefully it's something I can do long-term.'
CARING PROFESSIONALS
A recent survey shows that about 87 per cent of the childcare workforce is female. The figures are the result of an investigation by the childcare division of the agency association the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Marcia Delaney, an executive member of the childcare division, draws a parallel between the potential growth in numbers of male childcarers and the increasing role of male nurses in the NHS. 'Ten years ago it was far less common to see male nurses on hospital wards. Ten years from now it may well be that male nannies and male au pairs will be a more acceptable and common occurrence too.'
Support and encouragement for men considering this career path is being offered by the Brighton-based Men Who Care, which is part of the local Early Childhood Project. It was set up five years ago to give moral support to men in childcare. Contact Men Who Care, Brighton and Hove Early Childhood Project, 28-29 Western Road, Hove Brighton BN3 1AF.
