Experiences of care labour, gender and work for men who teach young children

Abstract

This paper explores five Irish male primary teachers' daily experiences of care labour and gender in contemporary Irish schools. Taking a feminist poststructural approach, the study employs three data-collection phases using the interview as the primary method of enquiry. It employs a voice-centred relational method of data analysis, which involves four readings of data with each reading troubling the data in different ways. This paper places specific focus on three everyday phenomena: care, emotions and the body. The evolving dynamic between gender and work is discussed in terms of a socio-cultural tension that informs the experiences of men who work with young children. Overall, two major challenges are identified. First, emotions are considered as individual, internal and private responses to situations. Yet, we absorb the norms and values of our society in the form of social and cultural practices that preserve society, which bring emotions into line with the rules proposed by society. Second, teaching is considered a soft option career for men and an essentially feminised occupation rather than a masculine one. As softness is very often associated with weakness, primary teaching does not align with traditional views of masculinities that are built on rationality, individualisation and heroism. This is a further challenge for male teachers to care in schools. Overall, male teachers are required to reproduce accounts of themselves in terms of valued masculine attributes due to the historical association between women, emotionality and care.

Does gender influence children's and young people's caring? A qualitative, systematic review and meta‐ethnography

“…It was suggested that there has been a partial shift in society from hegemonic to ‘caring masculinity’, but research into the experiences of adult male carers has shown that the concept of caring remains ‘intimately bound up with female identity’ (Hunter et al, 2017; Gollins, no date, p. 7). Similarly, care work involving emotions continues to be perceived as an essentially feminine act (O'Keeffe, 2018). Thus, young men are still expected to demonstrate stereotypical masculinity (Robb & Ruxton, 2018), which devalues caring.…”

“…Thus, young men are still expected to demonstrate stereotypical masculinity (Robb & Ruxton, 2018), which devalues caring. Indeed, men's sexuality may be questioned if they demonstrate femininity through nurturance and care; yet, their caring skills are doubted when they display masculinity via emotional distance and control (O'Keeffe, 2018). A wider debate is therefore needed in society in relation to the benefits for young men of talking about caring for themselves and others, but also ‘doing’ care.…”

Women in Masculinized Occupations, Men in Feminized Occupations: Experiences of Gender Occupational Minorities and Their Roles within the Occupational Group

“…Consequently, the research on men in feminized occupations is less abundant than studies on women in masculinized occupations. The major part of the existing research (Simpson, 2009;O'Keeffe, 2018;Galley, 2020) focuses on men in care work, as this is considered a stereotypically 'feminine' task, both in private and in occupational contexts. Simpson describes her book on men in feminized occupations as a book 'about men who serve and care' (Simpson, 2009: 3), which seems to be a good identifier of the majority of 'feminine' occupations.…”