Teaching as a Women's Occupation: A Feminist Critique

Abstract

This article analyzes teaching as a women's occupation. It begins with undergraduate teacher-preparation programs and the ways in which women are influenced to view teaching as a desirable occupation for them while it is held to be not so desirable for men. It then examines those features of the occupation that have been criticized as helping to keep teaching from becoming a true “profession.” These include: a) ease of entry into preparation programs, b) the quality of these programs, c) the comparison of these preparation programs with those of law and medicine, through the concept of the “ordeal,” d) the ways in which undergraduate education in general perpetuates sexism, e) teaching as an unstaged, mobility-blocked occupation, f) role conflicts that women teachers experience, g) the moral quality attached to teaching, and h) the psychic rewards of teaching. For each of these issues, an analysis is made which demonstrates that these institutional constraints help perpetuate sexism in the occupation, while at the same time the constraints themselves are seen as caused by the women who are their victims.