The Equal Opportunities Commission is carrying out a major study into gender segregation in five employment sectors where there are skills shortages - construction, plumbing, engineering, ICT and childcare (see story, page 4). Four of these sectors overwhelmingly employ men, while the only profession on the list dominated by women is childcare. The report points out the need to break down barriers in traditional male occupations to enable more women to join, and much was made of this in national news reports. Likewise, the EOC says that more men need to be brought into childcare, while acknowledging that pay and status are extremely low.
The Equal Opportunities Commission is carrying out a major study into gender segregation in five employment sectors where there are skills shortages - construction, plumbing, engineering, ICT and childcare (see story, page 4). Four of these sectors overwhelmingly employ men, while the only profession on the list dominated by women is childcare.
The report points out the need to break down barriers in traditional male occupations to enable more women to join, and much was made of this in national news reports. Likewise, the EOC says that more men need to be brought into childcare, while acknowledging that pay and status are extremely low.
And this is surely the problem. Women do not avoid plumbing and engineering because the pay is bad and the value of the work dismissed. If it becomes easier for them to take up such work as discrimination breaks down, then these jobs will look attractive compared with childcare, certainly financially.
Meanwhile, the childcare recruitment crisis is likely to get worse, because unless something is done about the pay and status of the sector, it will be nigh on impossible to persuade men that their career lies in this direction.
