This is a (wo)man's world

It’s a storyline that guarantees a few laughs. In the film Daddy Day Care, Eddie Murphy plays a goofy father who starts his own daycare centre. In Meet the Fockers, Ben Stiller stars as a fumbling male nurse. Men working in female-dominated professions are often presented as punchlines. The reality of their experience, however is far more complex.

Illustration by Hannah Ciano

Daniel Gosson, 33, has worked as an early childhood educator for 10 years. He is the manager of Monarch Manor Childcare Centre in Toronto.

“When I told my family what I wanted to do, they wondered why I was going to college to get a diploma in babysitting,” Gosson says.

Michael Rigor, 31, is a charge nurse at Lakeridge Health Oshawa. He has been a nurse for seven years.

“I’m kind of like a girl mechanic,” Rigor says. “I’m bending a stereotype.”

Ian Alagadan, 25, has only been working as a nurse for one year at the University Health Network in Toronto. He’s already faced similar reactions.

“Sometimes when patients meet me for the first time they ask me if I’m their doctor or surgeon,” Alagadan says.

According to a 2011 report by Statistics Canada, men account for 10 per cent of registered nurses in the country. The same report shows that men make up only 3.5 per cent of the country’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce. According to Mary Fisher, program chair of the ECE program at Seneca College in Toronto, although the numbers are still low, more and more men are entering these gender atypical careers. With ECE, the creation of the College of Early Childhood Educators in 2008 resulted in more regulation over the practice, giving it more credibility.

“When people see men doing ‘women’s work’ they think we are lowering ourselves,” Gosson says. “This increased professionalism eases the stigma for men entering the field.”

In Daddy Daycare, Eddie Murphy's character starts a home-based daycare centre

after losing his job as an advertising executive.

The film portrays this career shift as a downgrade and form of emasculation.

Fisher says that the face of the profession is slowly changing.

“Men are not only accepted now, they are valued. They bring that much-needed male perspective into a classroom and a professional team,” Fisher says.

In fact, men working in these traditionally female professions experience certain advantages. Rigor says that compared to his female counterparts, he is seen as a more trusted authority.

“Sometimes I’ll say the exact same thing that a colleague says and patients, even doctors, are more complacent with me,” Rigor says.

That being said, men still face challenges in these careers that their female counterparts are spared from.

Alagadan finds it difficult to connect with his patients after a lifetime of conforming to expectations of how a man should display his emotions.

“I find myself appearing to be less caring than my female counterparts. I find it hard to act masculine while being empathetic,” Alagadan says.

As a charge nurse, Rigor has authority as team leader for his unit. Despite this, he still has to prove his abilities. From time to time, patients and family members request a female nurse to replace him.

“People sometimes assume that I don’t know what I’m doing, that men are not as gentle as women,” Rigor says.

Working in childcare centres, Gosson faces similar misconceptions. Parents have requested specifically for their children not to be in his classroom and for him to not change their diapers or be left alone with their children. Even potential employers shared these notions.

“One centre flat out told me, ‘We don’t hire men. That’s just creepy,’ when I showed up for an interview,” Gosson says.

Fisher adds that once her male students begin working, their perspectives or different ways of practicing may not be acknowledged by their female colleagues.

During their education, she says that these obstacles are discussed explicitly. At Seneca College, students can attend panels featuring men working in ECE. Even so, Fisher says that this still does not address the main issue with traditionally female-dominated post-secondary programs.

“Most of the people teaching are mostly women as opposed to men,” Fisher says.

Adrian Rigor/ Illustration by Hannah Ciano

Rigor and Alagadan studied nursing at Ryerson University in Toronto. They agree the only difference between the training that men and women go through is the emphasis on sexual impropriety.

“They really drill it into us to be careful when touching the opposite sex,” Rigor says.

According to Rigor, there is insufficient support and gender-sensitive training for male students in these female-dominated programs. Once they graduate, these men are not entirely prepared to tackle the specific challenges that come with their gender atypical roles.

In spite of the adversity, Gosson, Rigor and Alagadan enjoy their work. They love helping others, even if some see them as lesser men for it.

“It’s funny because a lot of kids still don’t know gender pronouns,” Gosson says. “So I do have one girl who routinely calls me Miss Daniel.”