Gender Equality And Child Parenting

When discussing the issue of gender equality regarding child rearing it is significant to include male participation. Fathers and father figures as for example male daycare workers have significant impacts on children’s perspectives on gender roles. As Lewis (1997) found in a study with preschoolers that they already identify as mothers and fathers. Keeping in mind that parenting is one of the most gendering activities children have to experience male nurture from an early age in order not to be exposed to traditional gender roles. Therefore, preschoolers are very aware of distinctive roles of mothers and fathers. Interestingly, parents with a more egalitarian approach to the division of labor and approach on childcare are less exposed

In Europe, the Nordic countries have been clear pioneers regarding gender equality (Thévenon 2011) Addressing the gender disadvantage the contemporary the German parental leave policy changed maximum paid leave from 24 months to 12 months, while the job protection period remained the same, in order to facilitate the reentrance of women into the labor marked, even when they did not want to take their children into a kindergarten or crash for children under the age of one. Moreover, the flat rate of 300 euros a month for six months that mothers at foremost received was changed by the new policy to 67% of the net earnings with a maximum fare at 1600 euros and a minimum of 300 euros. Henceforth, this policy does not penalize low income families, but encourages especially the middle class to precipitously enter the labor market again. The austerity of slots in childcare institutions, especially for children younger than three, hindered the reentrance of parents, mostly mothers, to the full-time labor market (Berghammer). A follow up policy from 2013 that guarantees a kindergarten slot for every child was supposed to be the solution from the German government to equalize the inequalities between male and female. However, due to the pay gap women are usually the ones who stay

Education has extreme positive effects on children. Statistically, parents with a higher education spend more time with their children and use the time for concerted cultivation rather than accomplishment through natural growth (Berghammer, Deutsch). Day care institutions are run by trained experts on the field of childrearing and provide each individual child which exactly what they need. Children who lack concerted cultivation at home or need special treatment in any other way get a inclusive treatment. This provides children with traditional gender role distribution the chance to experience a more egalitarian approach on women’s and men’s roles. This effect gets intensified when men work in kindergarten and take up the roles identified as feminine. Cuddling, caring, cleaning and feeding belong to the duties of a kindergarten employee and especially in Germany is the demand for male educators especially high (Zanetti 2014). The occupation is, however, strongly feminized and some parents are reluctant to leave their children in the care of a mixed team of kindergarten teachers, as they might not be caring and kind enough or some even fear that pedophile tendencies might be behind their interest in children. While many parents observe that their children behave different around male educators and are already at the age of two more “flirty” (Zanetti