By DEBORA ARU

NE in every eight people thinks a stay-at-home dad is “less” of a man.

A new survey from polling group IPSOS Mori asked the public what they thought about men who remained at home to look after their children.

Although 81 per cent disagree with the idea that a dad who does this is less of a man, 13 per cent agree.

It is not known what the remaining six per cent of people thought.

There is more of a bias against the idea of stay-at-home dads among men.

While 12 per cent of women agree that stay-at-home dads are less of a man, that figure rises to 14 per cent among men.

Jeremy Davies, from thinktank The Fatherhood Institute, said: “Stay-athome dads are still relatively unusual, and maternalism still pervades UK culture - so it’s perhaps not surprising that a small proportion of people feel this way.

“The good news is that men and women are sharing the hands-on caring and earning responsibilities more than ever before, and most of us understand that children with involved dads do better than those with more ‘traditional’ fathers.”

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 215,000 stay-at-home dads across the UK in the three months to January 2019.

That is down some 37,000 from the same period the previous year.

The news comes as more than three in every four people (78 per cent) agree that employers should make it easier for men to combine childcare with work.

Half of all people also say not enough is being done in general to encourage equality when it comes to childcare and home care.

This increases to 60 per cent specifically for women and drops to 39 per cent for men.

Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, said: “There is a real desire among both sexes to tackle the gap between men and women when it comes to looking after children and the home.

“We need employers to give men the flexibility to balance their careers with childcare responsibilities, which will in turn better enable women to advance in the workplace.”