Men

The BBC today are running two articles on men and childcare.

Which is a nice change. However, the first of these articles highlights two major problems related to sexism. Firstly, people working in the childcare sector are massively underpaid, especially when they are reasonably skilled workers. This is linked to the fact that the majority of these workers are women and women are massively underpaid in a patriarchal system, but also linked to the idea of 'value' for the 'role', I suppose. Secondly, pushing for men to go into the jobs and actually providing encouragement is a massive job, not something one slips into a statement from an organisation. Paternity time has increased under the Labour government, which I'm vaguely thankful for, but until a more equal scheme comes into play in which mother and father can divvy out a pool of parent-time between them, I don't see how men are going to be actively encouraged into such a job, or indeed encouraged to care. Sad, really.