Listen to thisWe frequently hear that there are insufficient men working in direct practice in Child and Youth Care, and that the field would benefit from having more men. Many people argue that for some reason, Child and Youth Care is not seen as a desirable area of work for men “or even that 'care-giving' is not seen as an appropriate activity for men. Yet one might think that with the changing standards, with more men taking care of their own children, and with changing expectations on men, more men would think of care-giving as a legitimate occupational field for themselves.
What do you think? Is Child and Youth Care seen as undesirable for men? Do we need more men? If so, how could we attract more men in to the field? What can we do?
... brought the following replies:
What a good question. As an educator in the field, who interviews prospective Child and Youth Care students, a theme has seemed to emerge over the past few years. Many of the male candidates are interested in the Human Services, question me about how Child and Youth Care is different. Their questions often try to address which educational background and experience will put them in a more “powerful" position.
As I think about your questions, it comes to mind that many of the men who are considering this field are looking for “legislated" or perhaps jurisdictional power, i.e., how they might have power over others. They seem to have difficulty understanding the “power of the relationship" that develops between a Child and Youth Care counsellor and young person and their family. This may have to do with the status that our society places on those “in power". Perhaps those men in Child and Youth Care don’t have as many “being in power" needs “or they have found other ways to meet them ...
I look forward to reading the thoughts of others and contributing further to this discussion as it progresses.
VW
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Men? Because men tend to work through issues and relationships
differently than women. I feel the program of Child and Youth Care was
developed with women in mind.
There are so many men out there who express their feelings in different ways as a woman would in the same situation, and those men are doing awesome Child and Youth Care relationship building work, but if you put them in some of those counselling classes where one needs to document every “Ahhhh, Ohhhh and Hmmm", I could see their interest in the field perhaps falter.
What is reassuring to me is that there are many men out there who are doing Child and Youth Care work through their everyday encounters, through volunteering, through time and commitment, and this means that the few who would shine with the degree behind their name are out there shining above many others without having those letters.
I remember the sort of remark I had from men on the course was the “quit analyzing me" thing, and maybe this came from lack of understanding on the men's part on what it is a Child and Youth Care worker does.
I believe that getting the word out that Child and Youth Care is out there is a huge step, because people sometimes don't realize this is an option.
Just thoughts.
Anonymous
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I came home from work the other day and the bricklayer fixing my porch asked me where I work. I told him that I look after children in a group home. He smiled and asked, “Isn't that women's work?" I asked him back, “Who taught you to be a man? Your momma, or your Poppa?"
My turn to smile...
Patrick Gillen
Edmonton Alberta, Canada
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I would certainly be interested in hearing ideas on this topic. In Scotland the number of men applying for youth work is dropping steadily. It drops even faster if the vacancy includes 'care' in the title.
In the organisation where I work – www.kibble.org – we are considering running a pilot recruitment and training programme aimed directly at men. Any suggestions for course content would be gratefully received!!
Graham Bell
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Well we as men tend to be run by our egos. until we learn how to use them it is probably a good place for men to stay away from. Youth in this field need to heal and an out of control or even a misunderstood ego is not healthy. So we need to teach young men how to have a commitment larger than our egos. Not an easy task.
Harold Brown
Victoria B. C.
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I have had the opportunity to work with some very effective male youth care workers in both residentIal and outreach programs. I think that VW has a point that some men may seek such a position to fill their need for power. However, I do not believe that women are exempt from this tendency. Good youth care workers are male and female. I think that many elements contribute to the the low numbers of male youth care workers “this is just one:
Although we have made many advances in the pursuit of equality of the sexes, issues such as these still remain. The money we receive as youth care professionals does not match those of other professions that demand such accountability, responsibility, and energy. I am not sure if this fact makes youth care “a woman's job", but I do think that women have an easier time swallowing it.
Julie Knaggs
New Brunswick, Canada
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There was a herd of elephants in a game reserve in Africa some years ago that began to act strangely. The young bulls began to attack & kill the rhinos in the area. Before that, they always managed to live in harmony, and so the game wardens tried to figure out what had caused this unusual behaviour. After studying the situation, they concluded that the problem was about how the elephants had been parented. Some years earlier, the older bulls had been killed off to reduce the size of the herd. The young bulls had no fathers left to influence them as they grew up, so they were not taught how to manage their enormous power and strength. They became angry and violent.
People are like that:
70% of all long-term prison inmates grew up without a father in the
home.
72% of adolescent murderers grew up without a father.
As did 60% of convicted rapists.
Children growing up in a single-parent home are 6 times as likely to grow up poor, 2 times as likely to require psychiatric help, 2 times as likely to drop out of high school, and the girls are 3 times as likely to have a baby out of wedlock.
Boys and girls, when growing up, undergo tasks, which are best facilitated by the “male parental unit.” The boys go through the task of gender differentiation, in which they separate from the mother. While this is possible for a boy to do without a male role model around, it is difficult and confusing.
More often, girls have a female role model, but they too have a task, which is helped by a significant male. Girls learn, by observing the men in their lives, what to look for in a marriage partner. There are many anecdotes about girls marrying men “just like dad”. Furthermore, it is abundantly clear that girls who do not get positive attention from men will do more outlandish things to get that male influence, as they grow older.
I recently wrote a sad comment in my journal, which I will share with you: “Children who do not get love and affection will gravitate towards the attention of an abuser instead. Nature abhors a vacuum, I suppose."
It reminds me of the proverb:
"He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry, even what is bitter
tastes sweet.”
I am making the leap that men in Child Care are part of the solution.
Patrick Gillen
Edmonton Alberta, Canada
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Perception. These are confusing and risky times for men who hope to be
in a caring, nurturing role with children. There are many stigmas that
are attached to males in the area of providing front line care to
children. The obstacles that I believe we have to overcome (been in the
youth counselling field over 20 years) is the negative perception that
this is undervalued and “women's work" by others. Society should embrace
men for taking on this role. This is a big leap against what the norm is
for “what does it mean to be male?". We are often viewed as soft by
others outside the field and people are rarely interested in what we do.
I believe people are immediately suspect of why would a male want to
work with children?, there must be something wrong with him?, can we
trust him? This is traditionally not a manly, male, macho or masculine
thing to do. It is rewarding for me only through the impact and
differences I am able to make in the of a life of a child. Monetarily it
is not a well compensated area or highly valued by society. How would I
change perceptions? Bring up our own children to be caring and sensitive
to needs of others. The impact that we have as male role models for
today's youth may not be seen for years to come, but it is has certainly
been well worth it for me! Now if I can only win that lottery.
Anonymous
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I grew up in a family with one other sibling. The both of us are males. Both of us ended up in this profession. Both of us had uniquely different interests, skills and capabilities. Both of us did not agree with the same methods of treatment. Both of us sought out different type of settings to work in. We had the same parents, grew up in the same type of neighborhood, and were exposed to similar educational systems, religious affiliation and cultural heritage rituals. He was five years older than me. Yes we shared some similar characteristics but our experiences of each were completely different. Joe and I were like night and day; however, we did share similar philosophical beliefs and it was that shared belief system that drew us to this profession. It had nothing to do with gender.
I resent those who argue that the main reason there are less men in our profession is because of gender reasons. Gender may play a part, but I seriously question if it is one of the main reasons. How our profession is presented to others needs a FACE LIFT! A lot more work needs to go into PR education work. I believe that we Child and Youth Care professionals do an inadequate job in presenting what we do to the general public and to the world of academics. We are not assertive in educating others about our role.
Growing up in our educational system very few educators presented to me or to my brother what Child and Youth Care professionals were all about. We had to search for ourselves. When we did find bites and pieces about this profession we had no one to consult with further. We both went through the post-secondary educational system, knowing that our interest was in working with people; however, our advisors and other professors pushed us towards those well-known helping professions like psychology and social work. Neither one of us ever came across a faculty person who had any understanding of this field. Although those helping professions met our need to continue pursuing the helping profession, none of them ever stirred our whole being, none felt completely right, something was missing in achieving that sense of wonder, excitement, joy, fun, drive, excitement, challenge, meaning. It was by “chance” that we both ended up in this profession. An opportunity presented itself and we both grabbed it with vigor and excitement. Each of us were in different parts of the province and each of us gravitated towards different type of settings. Joe was more drawn towards criminal justice issues and I tended to gravitate towards the homeless and disadvantaged communities.
I believe that the Child and Youth Care profession desperately is lacking in promoting our profession to the world of academics and to the general public. I actually rub shoulders weekly with social work professors who have absolute no understanding of our profession. I have worked side by side with psychologist, social workers, teachers, and doctors and with religious leaders who had absolute no understanding of our role. I spent years educating these other professions about the role of Child and Youth Care workers. I’ve been in this profession for over 25 years and I still think of myself as being alone in educating these other professionals about our role. It’s like “peeing in the wind”!!
The question raised cannot be reduced to only one variable. I am not suggesting that the only variable is education nor am I suggesting that gender doesn’t play a part. I am suggesting that there are many variables as to why more females than males are entering our field and we do ourselves a vast injustice if we try to reduce it to gender.
Hugh Macintyre
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I'd like to contribute to this debate as it is close to my heart being
one of the few males involved in Child and Youth Care in an educational
context. In fact, now that I think of it, I am the only male in my
faculty amongst some 15 women educators. There are nearly 400 Child and Youth Care students at my college with probably less than 20 men across
all programmes.
I do feel very strongly that children and youth in care deserve access to male workers. I feel to create a healthy balance children and youth must see men as positive role models “unafraid to challenge the status quo. At the moment I am leading a national Irish study using both qualitative (10 focus groups) and quantitative methodologies (500 questionnaires in five college sites) which should throw up some interesting findings. But, here's my gut feeling on this one.
Child and youth care is hugely undervalued in the first instance, not well paid and full of potential allegations against staff. This is particularly the case with regard to males whose practice has been significantly compromised over the past five years. Men have to be more careful than ever in the way they might interact with clients. They have to ensure that they are in constant view of their peers and/or other clients. They have to walk a very fine line when dealing with all manner of disclosures.
It is of interest to see that in psychiatric nursing in Ireland there are nearly 33% males to females compared to general nursing where there were 55478 females and 2156 males formally registered in 2001. Where have all the good men gone?
Increasingly, they are opting for related caring professions where there are more defined unions and protection.
What a shame.
Dr Niall McElwee
(writing from Edmonton, Canada)
