How does gender affect the teaching profession?
A lot of topics arise when you bring up the question of gender and jobs. With any job, some people can argue that one gender fits the role the best. A few years ago, we saw men as businessmen and doctors and women as nurses and teachers. While I think a lot of this thinking has changed, there are still some stereotypes when it comes to job. Something that I found really interesting while reading this week's module came from the podcast on gender and education. It says that "women make up a majority of the education workforce but occupy barely a quarter of top leadership positions". Most people still have an idea that men are at the very top and something can become less in value when it is done by a women. I think when it comes to the leadership positions in education such as a dean of students or a principal, most people would like to see a man because there is a stigma that men are better at being the boss.
Another thing I saw in the module was the question of "Are men discouraged from working as elementary school teachers?". I have seen some male elementary school teachers but every single one of my teachers were female until I got to middle school. I think people see women as more gentle and caring towards little students so they are better fitted to teach elementary school. This combined with the fact that not a lot of men choose to teach elementary can be very discouraging to men. I like to think that these views are becoming more modern and jobs can be for every gender, but I still think there is this unwanted stigma around some of these jobs. I do not believe that gender affects the teaching profession. I think both male and females make wonderful teachers and can teach great kids no matter what the stereotype is.
I do agree with you that even though their still are gender stereotypes in the workplace we have gotten better at diminishing them slowly throughout the years, even though they are still prevalent. I think it should be more normalized to see women are being able to hold power, be a leader, take initiative etc and not see that as only male characteristics. I do think that the amount of female teachers does make men who are thinking about entering the field shy away. There could be a number of reasons why but i do believe that women being seen as better care takers is a huge reason. But that only means we need to prioritize showing equality in the workplace with the representation of both me and women. Do you think theres anything as women we could do to make men feel more comfortable going into the teaching profession?
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my blog! I think the question of what can we do to make men feel more comfortable is a tricky situation because I think a big reason men shy away is because of the amount of female teachers. I think there are always ways to make men feel more comfortable when you are working alongside with them and teachers can advocate for more men to join the workforce but I think overall there is not much we can do to get more males to become teachers. I think it mainly stems from the males themselves and that they need to want to do it and go against the social norms. Women can encourage them along the way 100%!
DeleteI agree with you that throughout the workplace there are plenty of gender stereotypes. I like the quote that you added in your response to show that men are more likely to be in higher positions than women because of the stigma that men are better at being in manager positions. I agree with your point that women are seen as more gentle and caring towards children and therefore are seen as better suited to be elementary school teachers. I also had all female teachers throughout my elementary school years. I do hope that in the future we work towards taking down the gender stereotypes in the teaching profession!
ReplyDeleteHello Willow! Thank you so much for commenting on my blog! The quote I included really stuck out to me and I am glad it stuck out to you too because it is such an eye opener that people still have this "old school" way of thinking that men are better at being the boss. I hope when we all become teachers, people take females more seriously in power positions.
DeleteHi Maya, I really enjoyed reading your blog and loved how you worded everything. I totally agree with you about the stigma of female teachers, I did not have a female teacher until I got to middle school which I always thought was weird and it made me think males weren't teachers at all. Once I got to middle school and had a male teacher I realized that there were only about 2-3 male teachers but I had a male principal. The stigma around that and the steryotype is that males are allowed to be teachers but they are "supposed" to be a principal so they still have the superiority over females. I have also noticed whithin my classes I only have one male in all of my classes which is really weird. Do you think that this stigma and steryotype will ever change with time? I feel like men need to be the boss and have a high paying job and a "sucessful" job, when they are a teacher and working with children all day with females it looks bad for their social status. I feel like a teaching job is very hard and includes a lot of skill that not a lot of people can handle, and males don't realize all that it entails. I also think that more females are more creative and not that men aren't but I think that also has a stereotype of being feminine.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some parts of your statement that teaching does seem more feminine but I also think that comes from old stereotypes of women staying home to take care of the kids while the "man of the house'' is out making money. I know this is one of the big reasons men typically do not become teachers but I have been working with kids all my life and I have worked alongside some amazing men who are absolutely great with kids and would make wonderful teachers. I do not have a lot males in my classes either but I hope that people recognizing teaching as a feminine career does not make them turn away because I know some men are just as capable of being teachers. Thank you for your comment!
DeleteI do think more women will hold leadership positions in education in the future. I think it is crazy how we haven't seen more females already because majority of teachers are females. I think these teachers get an immediate and first hand view of how things are in the classroom and can ultimately make a change if they were taken seriously. I hope in the future we are able to see more of this.
ReplyDeleteHello, reading your post was a good point of view on the subject. Another reason I think more women are elementary school teachers is because the younger children can be sometimes scared of a man depending on how the mans aura is. It is kind of like you said men are more seen as the people in charge and so putting that mind set in a classroom of elementary students can possibly make the students feel as if they can not reach the expectations of their male teacher. Whereas if it is a female teacher the students are more carefree and can be who they want to be and can act like kids.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I think the first time I had a male teacher was sixth grade for my math class, but the rest of my teachers were all female that year. It is kind of like male teachers are a little intimidated by elementary teachers.
Hi Maya! I think your post had some really great points! Some of which I had not thought of before. I liked that you brought up the lack of women in leadership positions in schools. I think many people overlook this because education is mainly a woman's occupation, but a lot of people do not understand that women are usually not the ones running things. I think that on some level there is a reason for this. I think that people know that if women became the leaders then there would be some extreme changes for the better in the educational system. The first thing would be the pay, I am sure. You mentioned that you did not have a male teacher until you reached middle school. In my case, I did not have a male teacher until I reached high school. I also believe that male teacher tend to migrate to the older grades because there is a stigma about young students needing a motherly figure to serve as their educators in the early years of their lives.
ReplyDeleteHello Maya! I agree with all the ideas you brought up in your blog and especially like how you pointed out ideas we don't tend to think of. My favorite part of your blog was you mentioning how women make up a majority of the teacher workforce but a small percentage of the leadership positions. I had never really thought of this before but see now that we have more change to make headway on than I thought.I had always noticed the lack of male teachers throughout school and really cherished the male teachers that I did get to have as it such a different experience. I loved having another male role model in my life and I know kids can benefit just like me if we can get more male teachers especially in younger grades. Do you have any ideas on programs or incentives that could be put into place to get more males to pursue education?
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