| When you think of using a childminder, the chances are | | | | for a childminder and expecting it to be a woman. The |
| that you will get an image of a woman in your head. | | | | fact that there are no searches on the term "female |
| But what if you were to call up a childminder and find | | | | childminder" is evidence of this. People assume that |
| that you were talking to a man? | | | | childminders are women. |
| To some people the very idea that a man would want | | | | After running childminderfinder for a few months, we |
| to look after children is abhorrent. But why is this? | | | | can see that the majority of childminders in the UK are |
| We recently conducted a small poll on a forum for | | | | women. There are some male childminders out there |
| parents asking "Would you use a male childminder?" | | | | and we have a couple listed on our site but demand is |
| and this showed that whilst the majority of people who | | | | small. |
| posted a reply suggested that they were not bothered | | | | In this day and age where CRB checks are now |
| either way, 54% of the vote was a clear "Yes", with | | | | required for anyone working with children and vetting |
| only about one third (32%) saying "No". | | | | and barring checks are to be carried out for anyone |
| It is obvious that there is a difference in what people | | | | with contact with children, is it any wonder that people |
| say to what they actually mean. No surprise there | | | | are put off of using male childcare? |
| though. If you look at the search results in Google for | | | | We live in a time where many working parents cannot |
| male childcare you get some interesting figures. | | | | afford to give up work to look after children, childcare |
| Interestingly in Google the monthly search stats for the | | | | is the only viable option. People want the best for their |
| terms: | | | | kids and using a registered childminder is a popular |
| "Male childminder" gets: 46 global searches | | | | option. But if a female childminder is CRB checked and |
| "Female childminder" gets: 0 | | | | correctly registered, does it make her a better option |
| "Male Nanny" gets: 3600 global searches. | | | | than a male childminder of the same standard? |
| "Nanny" gets: 5,000,000 global searches. | | | | There is still a stigma attached to male childminders |
| It is apparent that whilst there are some people out | | | | and it seems that until people are more educated that |
| there looking for male childminders, and there is a small | | | | men are just as capable of being good at caring for |
| demand, the majority of searches are people looking | | | | children there always will be. |