Men underrepresented in healthcare and early education careers: Study

“Men are really, really underrepresented in healthcare and teaching careers.”

That’s the outcome of a new study from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Lead author Katherina Block said the study found that while women are underrepresented in science and technology fields, there are even fewer men with careers in healthcare and early education.

The overall outcome was that men placed less importance and value on those types of careers.

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“We think this is really a problem because these careers are pretty important to have society function and could really use some more men in them,” said Block.

“We found that that could be tied to some of the more basic values that men hold. If we want to attract more men to these careers, we may want to look into something to emphasize that these care-oriented careers add a lot of value to society.”

Block said that men make up only 10 per cent of nurses and four per cent of preschool and kindergarten teachers in the United States, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.