This article presents a study conducted in Federation Wallonia-Brussels (FWB) to identify factors that motivate men to enrol in training programmes and work in a field where women are the majority, in a context in which few proactive measures are taken to overcome gender stereotypes. Comprehensive interviews conducted with male childcare ‘informants’ who had been working with children under the age of three for at least a year in subsidised childcare centres helped us to identify factors which seemed to influence their decision to enrol in and continue an initial training programme with a curriculum that is not gender-neutral, and then work in a profession that is almost exclusively female.