Noting that men make up less than 1 percent of childcare workers, this book details a study of gender in the workforce, exploring the experience of male childcare workers in England. Chapter 1 presents the stories of six men and women in childcare centers of various kinds and outlines the relationship between mothering, fathering, the self and work, and the purpose and ethos of childcare institutions. Chapter 2 gives a brief account of early childhood services and the early childhood workforce in Britain, outlining the current policy context, and detailing the methods used for this interview study to describe and analyze the characteristics of day care staff. Chapter 3 draws on the experiences of the informants to document how and why men and women become workers in childcare institutions. Chapter 4 examines the working environment, including job conditions, exclusionary practices by staff, tensions between gender difference and individuality, and the issue of role models. Chapter 5 analyzes the interaction of the institution with the outside world through staff practice and relations with parents. Chapter 6 examines the views of mothers and fathers. Chapter 7 contrasts the British and North American debate regarding a link between men workers and potential child sexual abuse and the experience in Scandinavia. Chapter 8 revisits the four central themes of the book: caring work as mothering work, incorporation of self and gender identities, gender visibility and reflexive institutions, and gender equality and resistance to men. The book concludes by considering the case for changing the gender composition of the childcare workforce. (Contains 159 references.) (KB)