OPINION
Peter Allan Williams
Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.reality check.radio three days a week
peterallanwilliams.substack.com
I was intrigued to watch a TV news story (September 3) making a big deal out of a house in west Auckland which will be the first in the country to be built by an all-women team. From the groundwork using the digger through to the final sign-off, we’re told women will be doing all the work.
In reality, I reckon there’ll be a few men involved at some stage of the project because we all know that when you build a house the personnel through the various trades change constantly and if there’s a man ban on this place there could be a quite a few construction hold-ups.
But that would take away from the feel-good aspect of the story. It’s a great PR coup by Fletcher Living who also just happened to have attractive blondes as leaders of the project to appear on TV. So good on Fletchers for the story. Their PR department has put one over TV 1 News.
I wonder though if this scenario would be reported on with such enthusiasm: a primary school where every teacher is a male.
You see, as much as building and construction are dominated by males, primary school teaching is a female-heavy industry, to the stage where now more than eight out of ten primary school teachers are women.
Considering that half of the primary school population is male, the demographics of the teaching staff should do their best to reflect that.
The stats for female construction workers – about one in ten – are not that much different from male primary school teachers.
So sure, let’s get women into construction and building and the trades, but why don’t we make the same effort to get males into primary school teaching?
Yes, I’m biased. My father was a primary school teacher. I feel very fortunate to have had a male teacher for virtually my entire primary school education – to be fair it was often my father – but my kids certainly did not get that and most of my grandchildren aren’t either.
Yet experience tells us that boys respond to strong male leadership at school. I’m sure a reduction in the feminisation of the primary teaching sector, and an increase in male teachers, would be a great boost for New Zealand society.
But I see absolutely no effort being made by education authorities to do anything about it.