Teaching should reflect the diversity of the society it is serving, and yet we know in Northern Ireland there has been a generational decline in the number of males in the profession.
That just 30% of teachers in our secondary schools are men is stark enough, but even more shocking is the fact that figure is only 15% in primary schools.
And, according to recent statistics from Nisra, 100% of nursery teachers here are female.
There have been calls for education chiefs to implement a gender strategy to tackle the issue.
It would need to look at the core reasons why teaching — a valuable and rewarding vocation — is not seen as an attractive career by men.
Some of those reasons are obvious. The pay scales can be lower than many other public sector graduate jobs. Salaries have declined in real terms since 2010.
Full-time jobs in the sector are scarce, with many qualified people spending years working as substitute teachers.
Such precarious employment makes getting a mortgage difficult.
And yet the real issue seems to be one of historic gender norms, with women directed on a teaching or caring profession path from a young age.
According to Nisra, only 46.9% of principals in post-primary schools are female. In primary and preparatory schools, the figure is 59.2%.
Any strategy needs to address that imbalance and why, despite being vastly outnumbered in the profession, men are over-represented as principals.
It would also need to consider new and inventive ways to attract young men to the job.
Improving pay and working conditions would be a start, as would providing bursaries for talented students, and ensuring careers teachers are not using outdated gender stereotypes when recommending future jobs to pupils.
Education authorities, schools and their boards of governors need to work together and make a conscious effort to promote greater equality of opportunity within the profession.
There is a longstanding problem of educational underachievement here, particularly among boys from areas of economic deprivation.
Young people would greatly benefit from having male role models from an early age to inspire them to continue with their education.
Other public sector employers, such as policing, the fire and rescue services and the prison service, have had recruitment drives aimed at bringing more women into the sector.
The Education Minister may need to look at a similar approach with teaching if the imbalance is to ever be addressed.