How Does Gender Affect the Teaching Profession?
Teaching is a predominantly female profession, if we all look back at our past teachers we can probably count the amount male teachers we had, on one hand, I know I can. In the podcast “Gender Matters: Challenges Facing Women in Education” Jennie Weiner states that while 86% of teachers are women, only 23% are superintendents. Why is it that so many women are teachers, a job that is severely underpaid, but almost none in positions of leadership in the education system? Jennie Weiner stated “We've had a highly feminized profession, but feminized means both that women do the work, but also that it's devalued because it is women's work” Meaning that because teaching is seen as a female profession it is undervalued and therefore underpaid. Throughout the podcast she talked about many issues, including teachers being seen as caretakers, they are expected to dedicate all their time to the job. In the modules, we had a list of rules for teachers from 1915, many of which were very controlling over the teachers' personal life. They weren’t allowed to be with any man during their contract and weren’t allowed to leave their house between certain hours unless it was school related. Looking at those rules I was baffled that the 8-hour-a-day job could rule almost every aspect of their personal life, but even today, while not so extreme, teachers are expected to dedicate a lot of time to the job. I think that if more teachers were male they wouldn’t be seen as caretakers as much.
Hello Stevie! Yes, I know I can attest to that as well given that most of my teachers have been females. I even see it all around me now. As I begin to take courses that are directly for my major, I notice that I am surrounded by females apart from one or two males. I learned a lot from listening to the podcast. I hadn’t realized that such a small percentage of women had superintendent roles despite having such a large percentage in the profession. It was interesting to hear about Jennie Weiner talk about how sometimes she feels stuck because she does have twin sons and must find balance in her profession. The rules from 1915 were very extreme and I too was baffled by how much time they were expected to put towards their profession. It seemed impossible to do just about anything else. I completely agree, as a society we have created these roles and they are affecting the structure of a lot of professions.
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