An Imbalance Of Gender

I recently read my colleague's blog post here about his experience of being a male in the Education Sector.  His words deeply saddened me and I felt the need to ponder on this subject, as much to support him and other male teachers, as to seek to understand how this imbalance could be better managed and improved.

The gender divide in the New Zealand education system is rather profound.  The New Zealand Herald reported last year that fewer than one-in-five primary school teachers are male.  I found this statistic incredibly interesting and I started to wonder why that was the case.

We work in a female-dominated workplace, one of few like it I would hazard to guess.  But why?  Is it the pay rate - the fact that working in many other fields can have much greater financial benefits may deter males from pursuing teaching as a career.  Is it the old fashioned perception that teaching is a 'female' job - nurturing young minds.  Was it the fear of being put into uncomfortable or career-damaging situations with female students such as we see in the media more and more regularly.

I began to get curious what working in such a gender imbalanced environment would be like if I was in the gender minority.  How would I feel working alongside, taking breaks and having my entire day's conversation with people of the opposite sex.  Would I feel understood?  Like my views were always taken into account?  If my sense of humour or sensitivities were truly understood and appreciated.  I think not.

It's not that I think that female teachers choose to 'not understand' male teachers or their needs, it just doesn't always occur to us how it might feel to be one of only a few (or the only one in the case of my colleague) in a room full of women.  I wonder if this lack of understanding and appreciation for being 'male' is the reason why the gender imbalance begins to even out the higher up the career chain we go in education.  I can imagine that being a principal as a male, and having many male colleagues of the same status is affirming and rather a blessing for men in that position - suddenly they are surrounded by like-minds, people who truly 'get them'.

My colleague is right - we work, think and relax very differently.  We as female teachers need to be mindful of this and not be quick to judge our male counterparts' words or actions when taken for what they actually are - them being inherently male.  He was also right about our boys needing positive male role models.  Too many boys in our schools lack a male that they can truly look up to.

We need our male teachers to stay in education, we need the balance they bring to our heavily feminine workplace.  We need their sense of humour, the practical nature of the way they approach tasks and stressful situations to bring harmony to our working relationships.

Perhaps rural or small schools could start up (dare I say it!) - Men's Clubs, where male teachers can meet and share their experiences in a forum where they are understood and valued.  Perhaps woman teachers need to be more mindful of the topics of their conversations - whether we would want to discuss similar topics if the gender coin were flipped and we were in the minority.  Perhaps we just need to figure out how to attract more males to education, for them to see it as a viable and proud vocation to be a part of.

Whatever the solution, it's clear to me that we need to support and seek to understand our male colleagues.  We need to do it for them, we need to do it for ourselves, and we definitely need to do it for our boys.