作者 ｜
陳韻如(台北大學社會學系)、劉奕均(台北大學社會學系)
摘要 ｜
育兒一直被視為女性的職責，但近年來開始有男性從事居家托育工作。男性加入一個和傳統育兒、家務非常接近的工作領域，能否為性別關係帶來轉變？對於持續增加的男性居家托育工作者，目前我們所知不多。本研究試圖以他們為對象，進行初步研究，探討究竟是「哪些」男性從事居家托育工作？並且從托育和家務分工來討論，他們加入傳統女性工作行列後，家庭內的性別分工是否產生改變？研究發現：一、受訪的男居家托育工作者年紀偏高（九成年齡超過 50歲）。他們是在已擔任保母的配偶期望下考取證照，從事聯合托育。半數受訪者有收托直系親屬幼兒（孫子女），領取津貼。二、男性透過取得專業知識、轉移工作技能和區隔家務勞動等三種方式接受並認同保母職業。三、觀念上，他們不再認為男性不能勝任保母工作，但在夫妻聯合托育中僅擔任輔助角色，主要照顧者還是女性。四、男性在家托育雖然讓夫妻重新劃分托育工作和家務勞動的界線，但家務仍由女性承擔。
關鍵字 ｜
男保母、居家托育、性別分工、幼兒照顧
Title ｜
Men as Professional Babysitters: Identity and the Gender
Author ｜
Yin-Zu Chen(Department of Sociology,National Taipei University)、Yi-Chun Liu(Department of Sociology,National Taipei University)
Abstract ｜
Child care in Taiwan used to be considered a woman’s responsibility,
but recently there are men who have joined the ranks of professional
babysitters in the home. Do gender relations change when men start to
work in an area that is very similar to traditional household and child
care? Information concerning male home babysitters is very limited at this
moment. This study aims to explore who the male babysitters are and to
analyze if and in what ways the gender division of labor changes when
males start to work in homes as babysitters. The qualitative analysis of the
interviews with 10 male babysitters and their spouses reveals that 0%
of male babysitters are over 0 years old, and they join in this work on
behalf of their spouses and work with their spouses together as babysitters.
Although they think that men can also take care of children, they stay in
the assisting role in the child care work. Men working as babysitters leads
to new borders being drawn between child care and household labor, but
household labor remains primarily their wives’ responsibility.
Keywords ｜
Male babysitter, home day care, gender division of labor,child care, Taiwan.