but it definitely plays a role. ESPECIALLY in non commercial social situations. Why would any man in his right mind NOT insist that a woman, any woman, do ALL the kid stuff in all but the MOST secure situations. It doesn't help that many of the female activists/workers in the field that will investigate if any woman or kid gets mad about anything are insane.

Avoiding Kids: How Men Cope With Being Cast as Predators

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118903209653018615.html

...The Boy Scouts of America now has elaborate rules to prevent both abuse and false accusations. There are 1.2 million Scout leaders, and the organization kicks out about 175 of them a year over abuse allegations or for violating policies.

These policies can be intricate. For instance, four adult leaders are needed for each outing. If a sick child must go home, two adults drive him and two stay with the others, so no adult is ever alone with a Scout. "It's protection for the adults, as well as the children," says a Scouts spokesman.

The result of all this hyper-carefulness, however, is that men often feel like untouchables. In Cochranville, Pa., Ray Simpson, a bus driver, says that he used to have 30 kids stop at his house on Halloween. But after his divorce, with people knowing he was a man living alone, he had zero visitors. "I felt like crying at the end of the evening," he says.

At Houston Intercontinental Airport, businessman Mitch Reifel was having a meal with his 5-year-old daughter when a policeman showed up to question him. A passerby had reported his interactions with the child seemed "suspicious."

In Skokie, Ill., Steve Frederick says the director of his son's day-care center called him in to reprimand him for "inappropriately touching the children." "I was shocked," he says. "Whatever did she mean?" She was referring to him reading stories with his son and other kids on his lap. A parent had panicked when her child mentioned sitting on a man's lap.....

Are We Teaching Our Kids To Be Fearful of Men?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118782905698506010.html

...When children get lost in a mall, they're supposed to find a "low-risk adult" to help them. Guidelines issued by police departments and child-safety groups often encourage them to look for "a pregnant woman," "a mother pushing a stroller" or "a grandmother."

The implied message: Men, even dads pushing strollers, are "high-risk."

Are we teaching children that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes. Child advocate John Walsh advises parents to never hire a male babysitter. Airlines are placing unaccompanied minors with female passengers rather than male passengers. Soccer leagues are telling male coaches not to touch players.

Child-welfare groups say these are necessary precautions, given that most predators are male. But fathers' rights activists and educators now argue that an inflated predator panic is damaging men's relationships with kids. Some men are opting not to get involved with children at all, which partly explains why many youth groups can't find male leaders, and why just 9% of elementary-school teachers are male, down from 18% in 1981....

I think you are over simplifying the problem.

A major reason why men aren't in teaching, nursing, and other "feminine" occupations in greater numbers has far more to do with money and prestige than with anything else.

Men left these fields when women started entering them, and the pay scale failed to keep pace with that of other (more "manly") occupations.

Which is perhaps why some people look askance at men in these types of jobs: clearly he's not in it for the money, and it's not a job that commands much respect, so what is he getting out of it? This is an unfair assumption to make, of course.

But I think that speaks more to gender roles in the work place, and (tangentially) equal pay for equal work, than hyper paranoia about sexual predators.

and when men avoid those situations as much as possible, as any person not consumed with self hatred would do when treated that way, women are HIGHLY OFFENDED. The fact that many women expect men to HAPPILY VOLUNTEER to be treated this way "because men look at porn and pay for sex and therefore are capable of any perversion" and are highly offended when they DON"T volunteer has got to be one of the stranger manifestations of prudo-feminism out there. It's hard to conceive of a situation where the question "What do you expect?" could be more applicable.

feminists' constant bad mouthing of men chased the men off from any role in raising the young.

easier to train your young boys to be passive self-hating supplicants and cannon fodder for the eternal feminist vaginocracy when there are no positive male role models around.

remember:

male sexuality = bad. female sexuality = good.

man = insane and degenerate. woman = perfect and pure.

so, of course, this attitude carried over into ANY caring that men perform, for young OR old.

goodie. feminism creating its own mess and forced to LIVE with it.

Yeah, that's quite a list of sordid, tragic events you listed there. Of course one can troll around the Internet and find a list of criminal cases to support just about anything. What's your point? That most men really are sex abusers or potential or wannabe sex abusers? That men really can't be trusted around the elderly? That male caregivers and male health workers in nursing homes really should be viewed universally with suspicion? If so, rather than refuting my earlier post, you're actually reinforcing my point!

I think I said that feminism shares some of the blame (not ALL) for the widespread suspicion of men around the elderly and children, thanks to the relentless propaganda about sex abuse and the frightening statistics (whether accurate or not) that have been drilled into our heads for the last 30-40 years. Some elements of feminism entered into a sleazy alliance with the puritanical right wing over sexual matters that helped fuel a series of moral panics and hysterias that have caused great damage to the national psyche and the perception of men in America. It's gotten to the point that people see sex predators everywhere now, and that even normal men who want to teach elementary school, work in daycare, be caregivers, work in nursing homes, etc. are viewed suspiciously.

Feminism (or at least parts of it) helped to cultivate this environment, but is far from being solely responsible for it.

Of course men are more likely to sexually abuse than women! Everyone acknowledges that. (As for physical and psychological abuse or neglect of children or the elderly, however, women come out ahead, but that's another topic.) But of course the great majority of men are not sexual abusers. The point of the post was how feminism can help men who desire to be, or are forced to be, caregivers for the elderly. I admitted that such an effort is important and that feminism could be a huge benefit to such men, but that part of the effort must involve combatting the pervasive sex abuse hysteria and stereotypes about men--ironically, views that many feminists over the years helped to foster and entrench.