I'm curious to hear opinions on the dramatic lack of male teachers in Western nations. Great Britain, the US and most* nations have about a 4:1 ration between women and men. It fluctuates from nation to nation, Scotland for example only has 8% primary male teachers.
Being a teacher myself this is self evident. Only in all boys private schools have I found this trend to break, typically this isn't due to sexist hiring policies though. It's actually the school hiring past pupils and being an all boys school what else can one expect?
Whilst listening to the radio the other afternoon I heard a political activist being interviewed about the lack of female politicians in Ireland. She was asked why women weren't involved in politics, her response was to state women are actively discouraged from politics. Going on to state that men are to blame for the current European economic situation. The host (I think it was on 96fm) asked her about why there is a severe lack of male teachers internationally, her response was that men just don't want to be teachers. Now she was clearly a nut, but nuts get their voices heard more often than not.
That last part is only partially true. As a male teacher my biggest "fear" is the whole abuse scandal. Male teachers are advised by administration to never, under any circumstances, be in a room with a student with a closed door. We can't comfort students if they're upset, or discuss any sort of touchy issue. We've just got to send them to the counselor. To me it feels wrong, especially when I've worked in schools where this policy is focused heavily, almost exclusively, on the male staff.
But what do you think? Is it appropriate that men are being passively removed from the teaching profession? I can't honestly see an active process, society just finds that male teachers are weird in the current climate.
Please remember I AM biased in this. My work has coloured my opinions, so take that with a grain of salt.