Gender Gap Narrows in Nanny Field, but Men Have a Long Way to Go : Families: More males may be breaking the barrier to take care of children. For boys, “mannies” provide a role model that women can’t.

Technically, wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan’s role in the movie “Mr. Nanny” is more that of a bodyguard than a full-fledged nanny, but seeing him cast as the reluctant guy who cares for and protects two motherless, rambunctious youngsters begs the question.

So does watching Eldin, the offbeat painter turned nanny for television’s career-minded “Murphy Brown.” His nurturing instincts are evident as he plays pat-a-cake with Murphy’s baby son, Avery.

And there’s Robin Williams who, disguised in drag in the movie “Mrs. Doubtfire,” becomes Super Nanny so he can spend more time with his three children following a divorce from Sally Field.

Is it an oddity for families to hire men to assume the traditionally female job of caring for children? Are more men breaking the gender barriers and pursuing this kind of work?

The answer is that, while those in the nanny field have gone so far as to give male nannies their own moniker, “mannies,” there are so few men working as nannies that no one has bothered to tally them.

There is little indication that males are marching into the child-care world with the same gusto that women have been marching through corporate doors, but many in the business say they are getting more calls from men interested in becoming nannies, some from men who have lost other jobs. And some say they see a bit more willingness on the part of families to give men a chance.

“From what I see, men have a long way to go in this area,” said Christine L’Ecuyer, a child-care consultant for Perfect Nanny, a placement agency in North Wales, Pa. Her agency had some male nanny applicants, but has never placed a male nanny.

EF Au Pair, a Cambridge, Mass., company that arranges for young men and women from Europe to live with American families and care for their children, has 40 men among its 2,049 nannies, up from previous years. Said program director Laura Blaskett: “As men become more involved in child care, we will begin to see men taking more active roles as being au pairs and nannies. I can’t say I can see it happening overnight. I definitely think the media, television shows and movies will have an influence and make it more acceptable.”

Blaskett said the men attracted to the business often have done youth work, such as coaching sports or leading Scouts. They are likely to find work with single moms with young sons.

That’s the case with Susan Murphy, a single mom from Yardley, Pa., who is awaiting a 19-year-old male au pair to arrive from Sweden to help care for her energetic 4 1/2-year-old son, Adam.

Murphy, a publisher’s representative who sells magazine advertising, is looking forward to having a man take Adam hiking, to swimming lessons, to the museum.

“I noticed there are things my son likes to do being a boy that I don’t think I can fulfill, like he wants to go out and kick a soccer ball. This male au pair is an assistant gym teacher who loves soccer. Also, things like having somebody to help me get the Christmas tree up the stairs, to help me to take the trash out,” said Murphy.

“I like the protective kind of feature that a male au pair can bring. If I have a business trip in Washington and the three of us go down there together, I feel more comfortable with him taking my son to the zoo and walking on the streets than if he was a female.”

Murphy also wanted to provide her son with a good male role model, not only because Adam does not see his father, but because most of the care-givers in his life are women.

Because the demand for good nannies is usually larger than the supply, those who work in the field say it’s too bad that men don’t get more involved, but they understand why.

“Families are so suspicious about so many things. It will take a while for them until they are really comfortable with the idea of a male nanny,” said Wendy Sachs, president of the International Nanny Assn. and owner of the Philadelphia Nanny Network.

Agency owners like Sachs say that while they occasionally get males with very good references, they usually have trouble placing them. Sachs has placed just one man in nine years.

“I wish,” said Suzette Trimmer, co-owner of Your Other Hands, a placement agency in Philadelphia, when asked if families are willing to hire men.

Trimmer said she recently had a great male nanny applicant, a substitute teacher and a volunteer at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia who was looking for more work.

“I could not for three months get one single family in Philadelphia to take him as a sitter. They were afraid. They were afraid what they hear on the news. Parents would say, ‘What kind of a man wants to be a baby-sitter?’ It was a shame.”

The only time Trimmer has placed a man during her six years in business was last Christmas, when singer Bruce Springsteen and his band wanted a man to watch their children at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia while the band gave a concert.

Apparently, Trimmer said, the band had a male bodyguard/care-giver but he came down with the flu. Trimmer had no men on her placement list at the time, so she sent her 6-foot-4-inch husband.

Vann Atwater, director of the professional nanny training program at the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos, said there are usually two reactions when she suggests to a family that there are male nannies available.

“There’s this instant, ‘Oh, no. I don’t think I want to consider that,’ or ‘Gee, I never thought about that,’ ” said Atwater. “One woman said she realized she needed a male nanny as a single parent when she came home and found her young son shaving his legs.”

To those who wonder what kind of man would want to be a nanny, 23-year-old Malcolm June of Los Alamos, N.M., one of just two graduates of Atwater’s nanny training program, is happy to offer himself as a role model.

Now a preschool teacher, June will become a nanny in May when his wife, Anna, gives birth to their first child. June will take over from Anna the charge of a 2 1/2-year-old boy and 8-month-old girl.

June, who resisted pressure to follow in his engineering father’s footsteps like many children of the people who work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, instead explored careers like social work and theater, always knowing he wanted to do something “that made people feel better.”

But he found that working with children was his forte after he got a job as a counselor at a summer children’s program at the University of Mexico, Los Alamos. Then, two years ago, he took the nanny training program, where he met his wife. After graduation, the man Atwater called a “kid magnet” quickly got several job offers.

“I felt kind of a sense of pride that I was doing something different. I really like the fact that the job I have is something a whole lot of men don’t do. I feel like kind of an astronaut.”