What are the affects of a lack of Male teachers?

This post will mainly use figures on the UK, Australia and the USA. Anecdotes will reflect that I’m an Australian who has been living in the UK for the last year. As such it will have a cultural bias that I apologise for in advance.
When I attended primary school around 20 years ago in Australia there was a fairly even split of teachers – men to women. I don’t know if this was the norm at the time but I never got the impression that it was unusual growing up. Despite traditional gender roles amoungst my own parents, school gave me the impression that men and women were equally engaged with children.
While I’m not sure if an even split was usual at the time, I do know that the number of male primary school teachers has been declining in Australia. I can’t tell you exactly what the figures are because they are not available but according to the UN’s Gender Gap Report 2009, the percentage of male primary teachers in the USA is 11%, and in the UK 19%. There are no male primary school teachers on the Isle of Wight.

Figures are better at scondary school level: USA 38%, UK 39%. And by the time we get to Tertiary education the trend is reversed: USA 55%, UK 59%.
The reasons for these trends are no doubt due to a number of complicated factors. What springs to mind however, are gender schemas about the role of men in western society and how the media views their interaction with children. It’s probably fair to say that the idea that women are better at looking after young children has always existed. More recently I believe this view has been enhanced but the paranoia surrounding pedophilia in the media.
A friend of mine happens to be a male teacher, he recalls a radio broadcast in Britain in the last year that began, “Despite being a primary school teacher, is not a pedophile…” The association is so strong that many men and women seem to react to other men as teachers with a, “Why would they want to do that!?” response. As if teaching isn’t a valuable and rewarding occupation for men and women.
So what affect is this having? Well I have some anecdotes that suggest it is having a detrimental affect on the education of young boys. This seems obvious, as we know having similarly gendered role models helps women believe in themselves in traditionally male occupations like science and engineering. Many boys see no men at all in their school.
My friend recently left the school he was at, his former school is now one of those schools with no male teachers. He told me of a number of incidents. Upon hearing he was leaving, a boy he had never taught approached him, apparently distraught, and said “I was really hoping you would be my teacher next year.” On more than one occasion the parents of some boys have asked what my friend was doing differently to their sons previous teachers; it seems their performances had risen dramatically and they had begun showing an interest in school that they had previously lacked.
My point isn’t to suggest that men are better teachers. In fact my friend tells me that he is an average teacher at best.
The formative years of a child’s development are often the most important. Failing to learn to their potential at an early age must have a negative effect. At present we see that in the UK 1.4 girls enrole in tertiary education for ever boy, in the USA it is 1.41 and in Australia 1.29. (The UN’s Gender Gap report scores this as gender parity but that’s beside the point.)
Of course there are complicated issues of intersectionality at play here. Men can more easily gain employment in physical labour or at least there is the perception that is the case. Similarly, in the current (sexist) environment women need to be more qualified than men to be perceived as the best candidates for promotion. Yet, the lack of early role models for boys in an educational environment has the potential to be a significant contributing factor.
This is bad for men and women. Higher education is a valuable experience no matter your gender, it is one that men and women should have equal ambition for, and be given equal resources to pursue. It is at universities and colleges that issues of social justice are pursued by the student body; what are the chances for feminism to succeed if men are not exposed to these issues in equal number?
And what of young girls? What affect does it have on them to have no male role models at an early age? Does it reinforce the schema that men are incapable of caring for young children and give them the impression that is their burden to bear? Given that the gender pay gap is largest for couples with children, this surely is of significant concern.
This is my first community post here. I made it because I feel this issue can’t be ignored. I hope you all agree with me that this is an issue that needs attention and needs to be addressed.