Towards Gender Equity in Early Childhood Education: Investigating Low Male Participation in Scaling Inclusive Home-Based Early Learning Initiative (SIHELI) Centers in Nimba County, Liberia

Although a global body of research documents male underrepresentation in early childhood education (ECE), no empirical study had previously examined this problem within Liberia, leaving policymakers and program implementers without local evidence on why men remain scarce in the country’s ECE workforce or on which interventions would be most effective. This study addressed that gap by examining the persistent gender imbalance in early childhood education within Scaling Inclusive Home-based Early Learning Initiative (SIHELI) centers in Nimba County, Liberia, where women dominate both parent-teacher and professional teacher roles while men remain markedly underrepresented. Guided by a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the study drew descriptive survey data from 41 respondents (85.4% female, 14.6% male) across parent-teachers, professional ECE teachers, parents, and center management committee members at three SIHELI centers, complemented by semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions analyzed thematically. Descriptive frequency and percentage analysis showed that respondents overwhelmingly attributed male underrepresentation to deep socio-cultural conditioning: 97.6% agreed that men are raised to view childcare as unsuitable for their gender, and 92.7% agreed that childcare is regarded as primarily a woman’s responsibility. Strong institutional and economic barriers were also evident, with 97.6% of respondents citing low salaries and 100% citing the low social status of ECE teaching as discouraging male participation. Respondents favored structural interventions, particularly financial incentives (85.4%) and policy reform (87.8%), over softer strategies such as community sensitization (24.4%), public recognition (17.1%), or mentorship (12.5%). Qualitative findings converged on inadequate compensation, set against men’s culturally expected role as household providers, as the central barrier to male participation. By generating the first empirical, Liberia-specific evidence on this problem, the study contributes new knowledge in the form of a Provider-Constraint-Compensation Nexus: a locally grounded explanation in which men's culturally expected role as household providers, not overt cultural prohibition, is what converts low ECE pay and status into active disincentives against male participation, distinguishing the Liberian pattern from settings where stigma alone is the primary barrier. The study recommends targeted stipend reform, gender-responsive recruitment policy, and structural rather than purely awareness-based interventions to advance male participation and gender equity in Liberia’s early childhood education workforce. The study is framed by liberal feminist theory, which holds that occupational gender segregation - whether it disadvantages women or, as in this case, men - reflects removable structural and socio-cultural barriers rather than a fixed division of labor, and is situated within global gender-equality frameworks, including CEDAW and the Sustainable Development Goals, that call for men’s and women’s equal participation across occupational domains, including caregiving and education.

gender equity; early childhood education; male participation

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