The Early Childhood Council says the paedophile hysteria of the 1990s has caused a dramatic decline in the number of men opting to work in childcare centres.
New Zealand's largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres has called for a partnership between Government and childcare organisations to encourage more men into childcare.
The call follows TVNZ's Sunday programme which revealed men were more than 2% of those working in early childhood care (teacher-staffed, government-funded early childhood services) in 1992, but less than 1% now - and falling.
The council said the absence of men from early childhood teaching was a national disgrace.
Chief Executive Sue Thorne said New Zealand compared "very badly" to other developed countries and the need for action was urgent.
"With few men in our primary schools and fewer in childcare centres we have created a society in which we have quarantined our children from our men.
"This is a project of destructive social change with very negative consequences for children," says Thorne.
She says men feel they will be treated as suspect until proven innocent and that some parents will not enrol children in a centre if men are present.
"We have created a culture in which it can be dangerous to reputation and future for a childcare male to cuddle a distressed child, to change a nappy or express affection. This anti-male bias, however, does not change the fact that children need to experience men as nurturing."
Thorne says the presence of men in childcare is important for
the many children being brought up with absent fathers.
She has called for a partnership between the government, the
teacher unions, the education institutions and child care
associations to get more men onto the childcare frontline.
"The system needs them. The children need them. It's time things changed."
