I read in the paper the other day about a man in Northern Quebec who is whining about the fact that people don’t want to bring their kids to his daycare. He advertised locally, with simply the name of his business, his address and his phone number. Parents showed up to check the place out, seemed happy, but then declined his services once they found out he would be running it and actually be the one looking after their kids.
Now, while this may, on the surface, seem like gender discrimination, the fact is that people want their young children cared for by women. It’s not a matter of ability, necessarily, but more a matter of instinct. YES, men have most of the instincts required to look after children, but many parents don’t see it that way. Then there are the stories in the news of men (what is it, 1% or less?) who have been known to abuse children in their care, in some way or another. I wish it wasn’t true, but every major city has had these stories.
The article about the daycare brought up in my memory another occupation which I found out doesn’t welcome men. At the dry cleaning business on my paper route there is a wash and fold service. They will not hire a man to do this job. It makes sense – many women wouldn’t bring their clothes, particularly their underwear, in to be washed and handled by a man. Does it make sense? No. Panties are inanimate objects. Even if the guy behind the counter is sniffing them, they don’t care. But women, like parents, are sensitive to some things.
Would you take your kids to be looked after all day by a strange man? I wouldn’t. Ladies, would you take your underwear to be washed by a strange man? …depends how strange he is.
Is it fair that men are discriminated against in these cases? Maybe not. But it makes sense.
What do you think?
November 15, 2013 at 12:49 pm
I hate to say this but yes you are correct, though I have to say when I was in hospital it was the male nurses who were on the whole kinder and more respectful of me. It is unfair and there must be many good male nursery nurses and day care assistants…. not all men are bad, evil or pedophiles, I have no justification……………..
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November 15, 2013 at 2:05 pm
There were quite a few male nurses at the children’s hospital where my youngest spent all of his life until he was eight months old. But it’s like a teaching position where the men are supervised. I think we have a different attitude when it comes to health care – the majority of doctors are still men, and we’ve been dealing with them all our lives. But to drop your helpless child off in the hands of a strange man and leave….? Different scenario altogether.
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November 15, 2013 at 6:09 am
I’m a “survivor” so the last thing I want is to put my children in the hands of a man who may potentially “harm” them. Not to say this guy isn’t the next best thing to sliced bread but I am not willing to take that risk. Now if he wants to sniff my panties at the wash and fold? Well, more power to ya bc after a long day at work and a longer night in the gym – I don’t even want to smell my under arms let alone anything that the “nether region” was clothed in.
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November 15, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Haha! Yeah, I don’t really get the whole sniffing thing myself, but that might teach a guy a lesson. 🙂
For the daycare thing, yes, I think most people would say it’s not worth the risk. And I don’t think it’s really got all that much to do with being in this day and age. It just doesn’t jibe.
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November 14, 2013 at 6:55 pm
I think most women wouldn’t mind a man and a woman together running the day care, but a man alone raises disturbing questions. As for underwear, I prefer to do my own in the bathroom sink.
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November 14, 2013 at 7:36 pm
A man alone running a daycare could be perfectly innocent. I mean, anything is possible. But who would take the chance with their kids of all beings on Earth? As for the underwear, I believe the manager is right. There are many women who would rather not go there.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:55 pm
Do they still wear underwear in Canada?
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November 14, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Loooong underwear.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:41 pm
Preschool, no, not a strange man. Nope.
Underwear? don’t care.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:44 pm
Right. 🙂
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November 14, 2013 at 5:27 pm
I believe that the consumer has the right to decide who to hire for a particular job. It doesn’t have to be justified or explained, it’s the customer’s money to spend.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:35 pm
According to the manager at the dry cleaners, they’d slowly but surely go out of business if they hired a man. If it was your own business, it’s a no brainer – no consumers, no business. But when it comes to a company hiring people it’s a different story.
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November 14, 2013 at 6:00 pm
All companies are somebody’s business.
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November 14, 2013 at 6:02 pm
True. But not all companies are forced to hire someone they don’t want because they’re not reaching a quota set by the government.
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November 14, 2013 at 6:03 pm
Which is why some companies have an unfair advantage over others.
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November 14, 2013 at 6:05 pm
True.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:20 pm
I can see the point in the daycare business, I’d imagine that if a mother and father came to check out the place and saw a guy, the mother would straight away be wary of a man and the father would be thinking; paedophile.
It is not fair really but it is a natural reaction I think, women being seen as more maternal while the guy would be seen as drinking a beer and watching a man get hit in the groin by a football on Youtube while the poor kid cries her eyes out in the corner of the daycare.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:31 pm
Yep, that’s what I figured too. Unless I know a guy personally, I don’t leave him alone with my kids. I still don’t even like sending my little one into a public washroom by himself. He’s 13 years old but he’s only just over 4 feet tall. I can still pick him up easily, like I would a toddler.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:19 pm
Men are discriminated against all the time, as are women. People naturally prefer some jobs to be handled by a certain sex. You cannot legislate how someone feels.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Very true. But if it came down to legislating a case of discrimination, do you let the government put you out of business or hire and let the public do it?
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November 15, 2013 at 7:18 am
It’s a catch 22.
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November 15, 2013 at 2:02 pm
It is.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Once someone forgot a pair of panties in the dryer. I didn’t see it in there. When I was folding clothes there was a pair of panties and I freaked. Called my gf at the time, “What do I do with them!?” She laughed so hard. I threw them out. I felt so much shame. I could not do that job, but at least you know I’m not sniffing them. You’d just come for your laundry and be like, “Uh, where’s my underwear?”
As a teacher, it sucked. If you spoke with female students (I was the classroom teacher of a class of eight girls and one guy my first year), it was assumed you were going to molest them. It’s like, dude, they’re my students. It didn’t help that one of the male teachers at a local school did end up sleeping with one of his former students. However, still pretty common to hear those female teachers sleeping with male students. The response is different. When it’s a male teacher, “What a sicko! Pervert! What a wack job!” When it’s a female there’s a little blip and no one cares. The kid it happened to isn’t likely crying, “She raped me!” He’s likely getting high fives in the locker room.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:21 pm
Hahaha! “Where are my underwear?”
“You mean you wanted to wear those again?”
Hahahahahahaha!
Nice to have the perspective of someone who’s been there as far as dealing with kids and their parents. So, if they’d had a choice it seems they’d have picked a female teacher too, eh?
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November 14, 2013 at 5:32 pm
I was picked because I was male. Ironically. They had no male teachers as role models for the boys. And a lot of people didn’t care. But the snide comments were still there.
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November 14, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Lovely. I’m sure it made you feel appreciated.
I do think there’s a line there somewhere that they crossed however. There’s a big difference between teaching kids at a school, where the teacher themselves is subject to supervision and the kids can complain, to a daycare where the caregiver is alone and not all of the kids can communicate.
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