Men Are Parents, Too: Rethinking Who Belongs in Early Childhood Education

A father comforts his crying baby, helps his toddler use the toilet, reads bedtime stories, and patiently answers the same question again. We encourage that involvement. We call it responsible parenting. Yet when a man chooses to provide similar care and education professionally, his presence can invite hesitation. Why does nurturing seem appropriate for a father but unexpected for a male early childhood educator?

Simeon Lehmann's article, Holding Superman's Hand: A Journey Into Early Childhood Education, brings this contradiction into focus. He describes the influence of his grandfather, an educator whose kindness and love of learning helped shape his aspirations. Later, at Temple University, Lehmann found himself one of very few men and eventually the only biracial man in his specialization. He also recalls parents hesitating at drop-off when encountering a man teaching young children (Lehmann, 2026).

His experience invites reflection, but it does not establish every parent's motives. Hesitation might reflect unfamiliarity, gender expectations, racial assumptions, concern about qualifications, or several factors together. We should listen carefully to educators' accounts without claiming to know what another person was thinking. The broader question remains: what messages does our profession send about who belongs?

The imbalance is substantial. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2025 estimates, women represented 97.1 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers and 93.2 percent of childcare workers. These are separate occupational categories, rather than a single measure of everyone working in early childhood. The estimates also cover eleven months because October data were not collected. Even with those qualifications, men are clearly a small minority (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2026a).

Parenthood does not automatically qualify anyone to teach. Early childhood educators need developmental knowledge, intentional teaching skills, ethical judgment, and the ability to work with diverse families. Those expectations apply to fathers, mothers, and people without children. However, our acceptance of men's caregiving within families should challenge the assumption that professional caregiving belongs primarily to women.

Historically, early childhood work has been closely associated with motherhood and femininity. That association can make learned professional skills appear to be natural female traits. It can also position men as outsiders before anyone observes their practice. My concern is that when we treat patience, emotional responsiveness, and nurturing as gender characteristics, we obscure the preparation and judgment that effective educators develop.

Research helps explain this tension. McDonald, Coles, and Thorpe (2024), drawing on 96 interviews with women educators in Australia, identified three ways participants explained men's scarcity: suspicion toward men, assumptions that men lack the required abilities, and concerns that the field cannot meet men's career aspirations. These findings describe participants' perspectives; they do not demonstrate that men lack caregiving ability or that all women educators hold these beliefs. They show how workplace assumptions can help sustain exclusion.

Compensation also matters. BLS reports a median hourly wage of $16.82 for childcare workers in May 2025 (BLS, 2026b). A person can value children deeply and still need sufficient income, benefits, and a viable career. Recruitment messages about passion cannot resolve that problem. Improving pay should benefit the entire workforce, especially the women who have sustained this profession while receiving inadequate recognition and compensation.

Hiring a man can also leave familiar gender expectations untouched. Assigning him every difficult behavior, heavy object, or outdoor activity may appear appreciative while narrowing his professional role. My recommendation is to examine those assignments. A male educator should have opportunities to support language, document learning, comfort children, and partner with families, alongside the full responsibilities appropriate to his position.

The most sensitive barrier is suspicion. Families entrust programs with children who may not yet have the language to describe an uncomfortable experience. Their questions deserve respectful answers. Concerns may also reflect personal histories, cultural expectations, or disturbing reports of abuse. Leaders should not dismiss these realities. However, being a man is not, by itself, evidence that an individual educator has behaved inappropriately.

Child protection requires concrete safeguards. Programs should use required background checks, clear conduct expectations, active supervision, appropriate care procedures, reporting processes, and continuing training. Head Start's personnel standards illustrate this approach: they address screening, prohibit maltreatment, require reporting of suspected abuse, and apply conduct expectations across staff and other adults working in programs. They also explicitly reject stereotyping based on gender and other identities (Office of Head Start, 2024).

This does not mean every concern is prejudice. A child's disclosure, an observed boundary violation, or a specific allegation requires prompt action through the appropriate safeguarding process. Welcoming male educators must never become a reason to minimize evidence. Equally, a program should avoid treating gender as a substitute for examining behavior, supervision, and professional practice. Consistent standards support both children's protection and fair treatment.

Leadership responses matter. Hedlin and Åberg (2019) interviewed ten Swedish preschool directors about parental suspicion toward male educators. Some emphasized equal treatment and shared responsibilities; others prioritized dialogue with worried families. This small qualitative study cannot describe every program, but it makes a useful leadership dilemma visible. Directors must build family confidence while supporting employees' professional standing, rather than leaving an educator to manage suspicion alone.

I would combine a clear principle with an open conversation: we select educators for their qualifications and practice, and we welcome questions about how children are protected. Introduce every teacher's preparation, explain daily routines, and make reporting channels clear. Familiarity should come through transparent professional relationships, not through asking a man to prove repeatedly that he deserves ordinary respect.

Lehmann's account also reminds us that gender does not exist separately from race. His description of being a biracial man invites us to ask whose competence is presumed and whose must be explained. Programs should give educators room to describe their experiences without deciding in advance whether an encounter was about gender, race, or both. That listening is part of responsible leadership.

Should this change? Yes. Qualified men should be able to enter, remain, and contribute fully to early childhood education. Their participation can offer children opportunities to see men practicing tenderness, patience, cooperation, and care. That is a worthwhile possibility, not proof that male teachers produce better developmental outcomes. The goal is a broader understanding of human capability and fair access to professional work.

We should also resist presenting men as rescuers of a profession built largely by women. Brandes and colleagues' German tandem study found no statistically significant differences between male and female educators on the professional interaction standards examined (Brandes et al., 2015). Its findings are limited to the study's settings and tasks, but they challenge claims that one gender inherently provides better early childhood teaching.

A 2026 study by Coles and colleagues offers another caution. Men working alongside other male educators in Australian settings sometimes described themselves through gendered roles, while other accounts emphasized caregiving, collaboration, and professional expertise. The authors encourage attention to the professionalism of all educators, rather than narratives suggesting that men are uniquely essential (Coles et al., 2026). Inclusion should expand possibilities without reinforcing stereotypes.

That also means respecting family diversity. Children in households led by single mothers, grandparents, two mothers, two fathers, or other caregivers should not be described as deficient. A male teacher's professional responsibility is to support every child and family. Boys and girls alike deserve educators whose competence and care are evident in everyday relationships.

Change can begin with recruitment. Programs can show men engaged in ordinary teaching and caregiving, invite applicants through community colleges and career programs, and offer paid opportunities to explore the work. Images alone are insufficient. Candidates need accessible preparation, supportive placements, mentoring, and an honest explanation of compensation and advancement. Recruitment should make the profession understandable and attainable.

The Literacy Lab's Leading Men Fellowship provides one example of an intentional entry pathway. Its published program materials describe young men of color serving as paid pre-K literacy tutors while receiving coaching and professional development (The Literacy Lab, 2023). This illustrates a recruitment and preparation model; it does not establish that men outperform women. Programs can learn from the combination of experience, guidance, and financial support.

Retention requires equal attention. Leaders should review who receives coaching, who feels isolated, how responsibilities are assigned, and whether advancement depends on demonstrated competence. Staff conversations can examine assumptions about caregiving and discipline. Family orientations can explain professional standards before concerns arise. These are practical ways to build a workplace where belonging is supported through everyday decisions.

Programs can track applications, hiring, retention, and staff experiences over time. Asking families about trust and communication can identify what needs improvement. A higher male head count means little if professional support, equitable responsibilities, and child safety remain weak.

Over more than fifty years in early childhood, I have come to value the question behind the question. When someone wonders why a man teaches young children, I want us to examine what we believe care requires. Children deserve capable, trustworthy educators. Our task is to prepare and support those educators, evaluate their practice carefully, and ensure that gender does not close the door before their work begins.

References

Brandes, H., Andrä, M., Röseler, W., & Schneider-Andrich, P. (2015). Does gender make a difference? Results from the German ‘tandem study’ on the pedagogical activity of female and male ECE workers. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 23(3), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2015.1043806

Coles, L., Xu, Y., Sullivan, V., & Thorpe, K. (2026). At the margin and in the centre: how men working in early childhood education and care frame their role. Community, Work & Family, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2026.2621909

Hedlin, M., & Åberg, M. (2019). Principle or dialogue: Preschool directors speak about how they handle parents’ suspicions towards men. Power and Education, 11(1), 85-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757743819827979

Lehmann, S. (2026). Holding Superman’s Hand: A Journey Into Early Childhood Education. Exchange Magazine

https://hub.exchangepress.com/articles-on-demand/84288/

McDonald, P., Coles, L., & Thorpe, K. (2024). How women educators frame the scarcity of men in early childhood education and care. Gender and Education, 36(5), 510–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2024.2357825

Office of Head Start. (2026). 1302.90 Personnel policies. HeadStart.gov. 1302.90 Personnel policies. | HeadStart.gov

The Literacy Lab. (2023). The Literacy Lab names David Tate as its 2023–2024 Leading Men Fellowship national ambassador [Press release]. https://www.einpresswire.com/article/652619075/the-literacy-lab-names-david-tate-as-its-2023-2024-leading-men-fellowship-national-education-ambassador

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026a, February 20). Employed people by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity: 2025 annual estimates (Table 11). https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026b, September 14). Childcare workers. Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/childcare-workers.htm

About the Author

Victoria Long-Coleman, Ph.D., MBA is the Founder and Principal of Early Childhood Innovations. An early childhood educator, leadership, coach, author, speaker, she focuses on strengthening educators, developing leaders, and translating research into practical approaches that improve early childhood systems.

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