As a young man, Reginald Grant, 47, excelled in traditionally male, high-earning fields. A former Marine and defensive back for the New York Jets, he segued smoothly into subsequent careers in financial planning and software sales. During the tech boom, Grant co-founded two sports-related Internet-based companies. "I was a shark," he says. "You eat what you kill." But after the tech bubble vaporized, he found himself staring at a billboard advertising a teaching fellowship in Los Angeles. A year later, he's teaching honors English to eighth-graders in the tough Watts neighborhood. He makes $36,000; in tech his base salary alone was $60,000. "My lifestyle has taken a change, but I touch kids nobody else could touch," he says. "Every day I make a difference."

Men like Grant are learning what women have known for years. "The secret of these so-called women's jobs is that they do in fact involve a lot of skill and training," says Heidi Hartmann, a labor economist and president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Men often require more training and vetting for household positions, but the Pavillion Agency has fielded a "flood" of resumes from out-of-work men believing they can easily nab a post as, say, a personal chef.