Last month, I met with a headteacher from New Zealand, who was on a study trip of schools in Scotland. His focus was boys’ education, and we had a fascinating discussion about what it is to be a young male in the 21st century.
I said that educating boys about positive masculinity is one of my top three concerns right now - so I was surprised to hear him say that no one else had said this during his visits.
Given how much concern negative male role models cause, why are we not doing more about this at a policy level? An obvious push in schools is to promote careers in “Heal” (health, education, administration and literacy) to boys.
Let’s look at the scale of the problem first. According to the 2023 edition of Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland, men make up a minority of teachers in each sector, accounting for just 11 per cent in primary, 35 per cent in secondary, 22 per cent in special schools and 17 per cent of those who are “centrally employed”.
‘Where are all the men?’
Overall, only 23 per cent of Scotland’s teachers are male. The starkest disparity is in nurseries, where, according to the Early Years Alliance, only 4 per cent of early years practitioners are men.
In healthcare, it’s a similar story. The 2023 NHS Workforce Scotland report shows that men make up just 21.2 per cent of employees, but with significant fluctuation depending on the role. In nursing, personal and social care, it’s at a similar level to primary teachers. Only 9.1 per cent of those registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in Scotland are male.
In short, at a time of serious staffing shortages in education and healthcare, where are all the men?
We need to make the same determined effort in schools and colleges to promote Heal careers to boys that we do in promoting Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) careers to girls.
Richard Reeves, in his excellent book Of Boys And Men, cites data from the US that shows the proportion of women working in Stem increased from 13 to 27 per cent between 1980 and 2019. Yet, in the same period, the number of men in Heal professions decreased from 35 to 26 per cent. Is it ridiculous to suggest that attracting more boys in Heal careers might just open up more opportunities for girls in Stem?
One reason that it matters to have a healthier gender balance in Heal professions is that role modelling makes a pastoral difference. Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts, in their book Boys Don’t Try? Rethinking Masculinity on Schools, are keen to stress that the gender of the teacher in the classroom makes no difference to attainment.
Many boys learning ‘how to become a man’ online
However, given that fathers account for 16 per cent of the UK’s 2.9 million lone-parent families, for many children being surrounded by positive male roles at school is powerful; we shouldn’t be surprised that the internet is where many teenage boys turn to for advice on how to become a man.
Journalist Caitlin Moran, in her controversial book What About Men?, calls for a male movement that does for men what feminism has done for women; it’s revealing that we talk about masculinity, but not masculinism.
I don’t think it is controversial to say that the traditional (or 20th-century) conception of masculinity has broken down, and we have yet to find constructive solutions to this societal shift.
Rather than channelling our efforts into firefighting online misogyny, however, we need to put serious effort into promoting Heal careers for boys. It’s only by taking a structural approach to this problem that we can shift the dial on a whole range of issues that adversely affect young men.
So, when you look at careers provision and advice this year, ask yourself this question: are you promoting Heal careers to boys? Are they aware of the urgent need for more male early years practitioners, occupational therapists, English teachers or mental health nurses? Are you giving them talks on these occupations?
The first step has to be showing them that these pathways exist - and that for young men the chances of a successful future career are widespread and very strong indeed.
Robin Macpherson is head of Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen. He tweets @robin_macp
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