The gender gap no one talks about: men missing from care professions

For decades, in the name of workplace equality we’ve encouraged women to enter male-dominated professions because those jobs are better paid, more prestigious, and more powerful. Women engineers. Women in tech. Women in leadership. That agenda still matters but it is not enough.

One of the great blind spots of our time is that we rarely ask the opposite question with equal seriousness: why are we doing so little to bring men into professions dominated by women? We do need many more men in care professions—nursing, teaching, social work, child care, elder care, and support services.

The gender gap we should be talking about is not only women missing from AI jobs. It is men missing from care.

The jobs of the future are already here

Across advanced economies, the occupations facing the most severe labor shortages are often those dominated by women. Nursing, home care, child care, teaching, elder care, disability support and social work are under strain in most countries. Population aging will intensify this dramatically. As societies grow older, the demand for care rises structurally.

Yet when people talk about “the jobs of the future,” the imagination still turns to technology, even as a rising neo-Luddite skepticism questions whether the tech sector will still provide jobs at all.

In reality, the largest recruitment needs are far less futuristic. They are jobs we already know well: nurses, teachers, caregivers, therapists, home aides. Technology may assist them, but it will not replace the human attention, empathy, judgment, and reassurance these professions require.

In other words, many of the most important jobs of tomorrow are those that have long been treated as secondary. And they happen to be overwhelmingly female.

The great asymmetry 

Women have spent decades being encouraged to enter male-dominated fields. Governments, companies, and universities have promoted women in STEM, women in leadership, and women in politics. But the reverse movement has barely (if ever) occurred. Men have made very few incursions into what the scholar Richard Reeves calls the HEAL professions—health, education, administration and literacy. While women have increasingly entered STEM fields, men have not moved into HEAL.

The result is a striking asymmetry. Gender equality has largely meant inviting women to enter male professions and adopt male-coded behaviors—assertiveness, competitiveness, authority. The reverse movement—encouraging men to enter female-dominated professions or embrace traditionally “feminine” skills like care and relational attention—has simply never happened. This reinforces an old hierarchy: that “productive” work—historically masculine and industrial—is more valuable than “reproductive” work, meaning care, education, and social support.

Yet this hierarchy makes little sense. Without care, no society can function. Without teachers, nurses, and caregivers, no economy can sustain itself. These professions are not peripheral to prosperity. They are its very foundation.

Why care work remains devalued

Care professions remain underpaid, understaffed, and symbolically undervalued. Part of the reason is historical. Activities associated with nurturing, teaching, maintaining households, and caring for the vulnerable have long been coded as feminine—and therefore taken for granted. But there is also a labor market dynamic at work. Sociologists have observed that when a profession becomes feminized, its relative prestige and wages often decline. Teaching and clerical work are examples of occupations that lost status as women became the majority.

The opposite sometimes happens as well: when men enter a profession in larger numbers, its status can rise. Men working in female-dominated professions often benefit from a glass escalator: they may be promoted faster, perceived as very competent, or steered toward leadership roles. While this dynamic is unjust, it also reveals something important: male presence can change how a profession is perceived. If more men entered care professions, these jobs might gain bargaining power, prestige, and better pay.

The cultural cost of male absence from care

The absence of men from care professions is first and foremost a cultural issue. Boys grow up with very few visible male role models in care. In nurseries, primary schools, hospitals, elder-care homes, and social services, they see women almost exclusively. The message is thus absorbed early: caring professions are not for you, young man.

This matters beyond care work per se because care work fosters skills that modern societies desperately need—empathy, communication, patience, emotional intelligence, cooperation. Their absence in male socialization has lethal consequences.

Discussions about a “crisis of masculinity” often focus on male loneliness, educational decline, online radicalization, or fascination with strongmen. But far less attention is paid to the structural distance many men have from relational work—the kinds of daily interactions that cultivate emotional literacy and social connection. They long for intimacy but lack the language to express it. Emotional expression had been trained out of them.

Care as an antidote to the crisis of masculinity

Across the Western world, public discourse has become increasingly brutal. The celebration of domination, the contempt for vulnerability, and the glorification of force have become visible features of contemporary politics—particularly in movements that frame masculinity in terms of aggression, and resentment. But it is not enough to criticize toxic masculinity. We also need positive models of masculinity rooted in responsibility, empathy, and service.

Care professions offer precisely that. Male nurses, teachers, caregivers, and social workers embody a different form of male authority—one grounded in competence, patience, and protection. They provide boys with visible examples of men who listen, support and accompany others. And they remind us that masculinity does include care.

How to attract more men into care professions

If the absence of men from care is a structural problem, it requires structural solutions.

1. Create visible male role models
Boys rarely see men working in early education, nursing, or social services. Recruitment campaigns and public narratives should highlight male caregivers, teachers, and nurses as respected professionals.

2. Challenge stereotypes early
Career orientation in schools still reflects traditional gender norms. Encouraging boys to consider HEAL professions must begin early, before occupational choices solidify.

3. Improve pay and working conditions
Low wages and difficult working conditions deter workers of all genders. Revaluing care economically is essential to attracting both men and women.

4. Use targeted recruitment campaigns
Governments and training institutions actively recruit women into STEM. Similar initiatives could encourage men to enter nursing, teaching, and care work.

5. Normalize caring masculinities
Media and cultural narratives matter. Representations of men as caregivers—fathers, teachers, nurses, mentors—help redefine what masculinity can look like.

Gender equality should not mean inviting women to abandon care for prestige. It should mean recognizing care as central to society—and ensuring that both women and men participate in it. These jobs are essential. If the future of work is increasingly about sustaining human life—educating children, supporting the vulnerable, caring for the elderly—then the absence of men from these roles is a problem.