Men in Education: the Brave New World of Gender Bias

There's a ton of information out there about how difficult and biased and unfair education is for girls, but, like just about everything out there promoted by contemporary feminists, the information is either about twenty (or thirty) years out of date or applies only to limited areas of education, like science and math.

The problem is, there aren't enough good men in education. Why should there be? Men suffer enormous bias in the education system, as this Christian Science Monitor Post from three years ago points out: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0315/p11s01-legn.html. In fact, the incredibly low ratio of men in elementary education is directly linked to three things: (1) low status and pay (like, "Hey, you're a guy, can you move this desk to the other side of the room?" . . . even when the maintenance guy is down the hall); (2) the perception that only women become teachers; and the biggest one of all (3) the fear that they will be accused of child abuse (Hey, it happens all the time in divorce court, how much worse would it be if it happened in a way that destroyed your career, your livelihood and your professional reputation?)

There is an organization promoting men as teachers: http://menteach.org. Their site is full of strong support for the idea that, in the same way we need both genders as engaged, involved and responsible parents, we also need both genders to help our children learn. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the biggest remaining problem for girls in education (lower performance in math and science) could be partly resolved if there were more men in education: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3853842.html.

The reason there is such a delay in equity in this professional field, as in every other, is that the message of primitive feminism, that both genders should have equity in work, in opportunities, and in education, has been bulldozed into history by the more strident voices of women who are merely aping their historical "oppressors." Those ideas are old, out of date and unhelpful to us, and to our children.