22

Family assistants are childcare professionals who choose to work within their families by taking in children entrusted to them by the Child Welfare Agency. This profession was initially undertaken by women but is gradually opening out to men, although there are still prejudices surrounding it. What is the profile of family assistants today? What are the social and professional challenges facing this profession?Here, the author provides insights from a survey of 6,388 family assistants on their working and career situations during the first French lockdown in April 2020. The results show a significant change in the profile of family assistants. The analysis focuses particularly on two points, gender and the level of education in the analysis of professional trajectories. Two dimensions that attest to a transformation of the profiles encountered and lead to a discussion of greater neutralisation of the gender dimension.