Men Who Care: The Residential Setting as an Opportunity for Male Gender Development

To say that the current climate of gender socialization for young men is a challenging one would be a gross understatement. Popular media, family expectations and even supportive and educational programming models deliver a primarily traditional set of ideals for young men to aspire to: the independent leader and breadwinner, tough, strong and masculine. Additionally, one attribute is consistently seen as necessary for complete male development: the influence of a positive, same gender, and ideally family, role model. For the male youth in residential care, this normative expectation of development may be inaccessible. The following is an account of some of my perceptions and experiences as a male youth worker providing direct-care in a residential care facility. Often assuming the role of primary male figure in the life of young men transitioning into adulthood, I am at once both distinctly challenged by Western developmental and patricentric informed residential care practices as well as uniquely positioned to help define what it means to be male to these youths. Through these experiences I have come to realize that a child and youth care worker is uniquely positioned to disrupt gender role expectations as well as model egalitarianism in the home. To further help explain the tensions between gendered expectations and the caring values of youth work I will briefly unpack various assumptions that contribute to society's pathological outlook on 'fatherless' male development, specifically as it relates to boys in the residential and foster care system. Additionally, I will explicate my personal view of the male carer as a non-traditional identity and employment choice. It is my perspective that the perceived gender roles that station men who care as an abnormality, simultaneously present a unique opportunity for these men to impart a balanced outlook of gender expectations towards the developing youth they care for.