A. This interview was conducted in person over spring break. I did not edit a lot, mainly because I do not know how and there weren’t many pauses other than to think about what she wanted to say. I first called my mom to ask if it was okay to interview her and she said yes. So, then over break I conducted the interview and recorded it using an app on my phone and my iPad just in case something happened. I prepared a quiet place, but my family is very loud, so you could hear my dad laughing upstairs.

B. Bridget Roberts, my mother, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and now resides in Westminster, Maryland with my dad, sister and myself. She has been in the daycare business for about 32 years and has owned her own daycare for 12 years now. She told me she got into the daycare business because she wanted a profession and didn’t want anyone else to watch her kids. She is a funny, loving, caring person and couldn’t be a better person suited for her job. If something happens to a child, she drops everything she is doing and goes to help them. I have seen this before as well. She loves kids dearly and would do anything for them. She is also very professional at her job and makes a great boss.

C. Working in a childcare facility or out of your house, there are about 880,933 female workers in the workforce and about 77,373 men in the workforce. While there is way more women, men still get a higher average salary than women, which is actually crazy and shows you that men are looked at superior to any women in any workforce. There are about 91.9% of childcare workers are female which leaves only 8.1% to be male. That difference in male and female employees is a crazy statistic, but makes sense since caring for children has been seen to be a “women’s job.” My mom said that she wants to keep the kids happy and make them feel safe in her care. According to AACAP, parents should seek caregivers or providers who are warm, self-confident, attentive, and responsive to children. This is every employee at my mother’s daycare including herself. She wants parents and kids to feel comfortable around them all day, every day. My mom also said how regulations affect different things and how there can be drama in the building too. According to Leslie McCollom, the morning part of the day when kids are being dropped off is the most chaotic because children are sad to leave their mom or dad, which is understandable. In my mom’s daycare, we tend to see this more with our 3-5-year-olds. The experience McCollom describes would be almost like my mom’s experience, minus the fact that she doesn’t own a daycare nor is really in charge and how she doesn’t talk about the drama between teachers. But other than that, the experiences are keyed in. she also hinted at it being mainly a female’s job because she said you don’t see very many men being in this business and she is right, but there are men too.

Citations:

“Early Childhood Teacher | Early Childhood Degrees & Careers.” EarlyChildhoodTeacher.org, www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/.

Aacap. “Daycare: Making It a Good Experience.” Day Care: Making It a Good Experience, www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Making-Day-Care-A-Good-Experience-020.aspx.

“Childcare Workers.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/soc/399011/#demographics.

D. NR: Okay, this is Nicole Roberts and I am here to interview Bridget Roberts, who is my mother. So, mom, can you describe yourself and your business a little bit?

BR: Sure, well I am the owner of All About Kids Learning Center. We purchased the business in 2007, I worked at the business, the same building, it was a different company, since 1991. I love working with children, I love being a coach, a leader. I want to make a difference in a child’s life and when I had my children, I knew I wanted to be with them, but I also wanted a profession, so this was the best of both worlds for me.

NR: Okay, so since you said you started way back, like right out of college, right?

BR: Correct.

NR: So, can you describe how the teachers and aids were when you first started working at a daycare?

BR: Well regulations were a little different in Maryland, they were a little more relaxed than they are now. Teachers still needed, to be qualified as a teacher for 2-5-year-old, you still had to have your 90 hours whether we had male teachers or female teachers. If you were a school age teacher you had to have half of the 90 hours plus the school age course. Infant and toddler teachers was the exact same way, the infant-toddler class plus half of the 90 hours. That still remains the same, however there are some more training you need before you start. Now you need a couple more classes, basic health and safety, you need an orientation, you need communications just so everyone is well rounded to work with children and talk to parents.

NR: Okay, so, now like as you said about regulations and whatever had to happen to be a teacher or an aid, were there more males or females in the occupation?

BR: In the industry, there are more females than there are males.

NR: When you were starting out, there were still more females than males?

BR: Yes. It still remains the same today. I just think it is the nature of the beast. However, we do have males that work for us. Typically, they work with our school age children.

NR: Why is that?

BR: They want to be more active, so they are out with the camp kids, they’re playing games, they’re doing activities, and they’re going on fieldtrips. They are more likely to get involved with the, unfortunately the sports aspect of it because I guess females are more . . . We [females} do that, but we want to also make sure everyone is OK and taken care of.

NR: Okay. Since child care is mostly a female occupation, do you foresee that changing in the future?

BR: No.

NR: Not at all?

BR: No. I still see the same thing, it might come around, you might get 2 or 3 males at one time working with school age or after school [care]. But I still think it will be predominantly a female industry.

NR: Do you have any males working for you now?

BR: No.

NR: If childcare did change to a male dominant or 50/50 male-female occupation, how do you think that would pan out?

BR: Well, I think it would plan out fine. It’s just if that’s what males really want to do, if that’s what females really want to do, then I think it would be fine. You know, unfortunately, there is not a lot of money to be made when you’re a teacher in the industry. So I mean, like I said, we had males in the past that were perfectly happy, they just moved on either because they moved out of the area or it was a stepping stone and they were going to go to graduate school. If the industry does turn around, then it is 50/50.

NR: Earlier you said that ‘males would want to be in the school age room because they would want to be more active with the kids,’ do you think school agers prefer males sometime on fieldtrips or anything?

BR: I don’t know if they would prefer, I think they are a little more relaxed with them and they have more fun with it. I don’t think there is any preference really.

NR: Why would they be in the school age [room]?

BR: Well, predominantly because of toileting and diaper changing.

NR: Why is that?

BR: A lot of males aren’t comfortable doing that.

NR: Okay. So, if more males were in the industry, would they have to be comfortable to do that?

BR: Yes.

NR: Why do you think childcare is mainly a female occupation?

BR: Because, I think, typically women are more caring and more sensitive to the needs of the children. I am not saying that males aren’t, but predominantly males aren’t that type. They do care, but they’re not as mothering as females. And when you have 100 kids [in a building], that is what you’re doing all day. You’re making sure they’re loved, they’re unruptured. And males are nurturing, however, I think females have more of that skill.

NR: Okay, like motherly?

BR: Yeah. Motherly, nurturing, loving.

NR: Okay. So, you been in the job for what? 32 years?

BR: Well since 2000… Well not 2000, since 1987 is when I started working in childcare.

NR: Alright, so a long time.

BR: A long time [chuckles].

NR: So, you have been in childcare a long time and it’s mainly been females. Can you describe how it is to work with other females?

BR: I don’t necessarily think it’s hard if you have a good group of individuals and you know, as an owner, as a leader, I kind of feel myself as more of a coach. Id rather coach them than try to be dominant and tell them what to do. I can do exactly what they can do, so they know that. . . . It is also hard, I think females are a little more . . . social. So there’s a lot of talking going on sometimes when they don’t agree with certain policies or agree with certain routines. Being in the industry for such a long time, I have seen a lot of different routines and policies and schedule changes. I feel that myself and my director know the best way to make the center run efficiently and that’s why I want to coach them to follow my rules and regulations as well as the states because I feel like I know what I am doing and working with women can be trying because they want to challenge every word that you say.

NR: Yep. Okay. What do you think it would be like if it, if childcare was mainly a male’s occupation?

BR: Well, I think they would have less bickering, obviously. I don’t know, would your center be as clean, are they as cleanly as us, I don’t know. Would they be on the floor all the time with the babies, how would they do cleaning up throw up and when they [the children] have accidents in their pants and when they are crying because their mom and dad walked out the door? Sometimes there is a lot going on at one time. Can they multitask? You know, can you clean up throw up, console a kid and answer the phone at the same time? That’s the daily business.

NR: So, it’s really, do you have it or not?

BR: It is. You can learn how to clean, you can learn how to do lesson plans, but you can’t learn how to be nurturing. You either have it or you don’t.

NR: Okay, yeah. So, you said you have had male employees before?

BR: Yes, several.

NR: Okay, how was it when they were employed? Did they do well?

BR: Yeah, they did fine. Or if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be there.

NR: Okay, yeah, that is true. Can you describe how the gender schema has or has not changed since you’ve been working?

BR: The gender schema for employment has not changed. I mean, it has been the same for 32 years. You have one or two come in, one or two go out. That being males coming in, and males coming out. We have 30 employees and I have one that is a male and he’s playing sports now, but will come back to us for the summer and once he goes to back to college, I have no males. I’m not saying I won’t hire them, but it is just the nature of the beast.

NR: Okay, yeah. So now that we have done that. . . [paused] Do you like your job as it is? Do you want more males?

BR: I mean, as long as they can do the job, just like a female when they come in. If you can do the job, more power to you. Then do it.

NR: Okay, so this is going to conclude our interview, but I need to ask you, is it okay if I publish it on our course word website?

BR: Sure.

NR: Okay, thank you!

1. If I had to do the interview again, I would go to a quieter place because you can hear my dad laugh at some points. I felt that some parts of the interview flowed together better than others, but that may be because I figured what she would say about how a day goes because I do also work for her. I stayed on script more than going off, but I thought it was the same in difficulty levels. I stayed on track pretty well throughout the interview and got some good information from my mom. I followed up with my mom a few days after our interview to see what she had to say. She wanted to say that “This can be a male’s occupation, if they are willing to do all the things us females do now as teachers and mothers. Not many men that I know, would change a baby’s diaper that is not related to him. Being in the daycare industry is a lot of work everyday and everyday is completely different than the next. You have to be ready for any situation to arise and you have to be able to handle it accordingly, while supervising the children.”

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