Posted on 08. Sep, 2003 by Brian Reid in General
I’m taking a step back from at-home dad analysis today to try to parse a more puzzling (but related) phenomenon. Where the heck are all the male teachers? The nice folks at the National Education Association put out a 300-odd page report on the state of the American teacher. Buried in the report (and in the much more accessible four-page data summary (PDF)) is this startling fact: 21 percent of teachers are men, the lowest (by a long shot) since NEA started collecting the stats 40 years ago.
What gives? Newspapers are rushing to write happy stories about men taking over traditionally female jobs (see this USA Today story and this one from the Cincinnati Enquirer). The number of male nurses has almost triped in the past two decades. The same seems to be true in other fields. And, of course, at-home dad numbers (as best we can we tell) are on the rise.
So there’s a mystery here, and I haven’t seen a good explanation of why teacher-gender ratios should be widening when they’re closing elsewhere. (In fact, in the two stories linked to above, which were written before the NEA report, the authors come to the common-sense conclusions that men must indeed be making strides in the classroom.)
The teacher gender gap is particularly bothersome to me because school is where those first impressions of what men do and what women do begin to get reinforced. And those I don’t have time to do more than a cursory, unreliable Google search, it seems that men and women tend to have different teaching styles. And then there’s the importance of role modeling. I’d love to propose a solution to this disparity, but I can’t even figure out an explanation for what’s going on. Can you?
Michael Weber
09. Sep, 2003
I can’t answer for every guy out there, but I know that when I first left the navy and headed to college I thought about teaching. But, to me teaching is such a dead-end profession unless you’re teaching college. I mean, where do you go? You can become a principal, but that’s about it. So, basically, you’re forced to wait for seniority in order for your pay to go up.
I think women are more likely to make to teach “for the love of teaching.”
Rebel Dad
09. Sep, 2003
That was one of my initial thoughts, too, but the rise in at-home dads and male nurses should follow the same pattern, right?
Bryan G. Nelson
09. Sep, 2003
I lead an organization called: MenTeach. We’ve been around since 1979 (previously called Men in Care Care and Elementary Education) and we’ve been looking at this question for years.
We completed a national research report last fall asking this question why there are so few men teaching.
We found three main reasons:
1) Stereotypes: People still consider teaching and caring for young children as “women’s work.”
2) Fear of accusation of abuse - Some people are afraid that men will abuse children.
3) Low status and low pay of profession.
Many people argue that low pay is the main reason - however - in a unionized school district, where the pay is the same in high school as in the elementary grades, there are more men in the upper grades (41%) than in the lower grades (16%).
In addition, there are many occupations that have higher concentration of men than women that are low pay also (janitorial, farm laborers).
Check out our website additional information: http://www.MenTeach.org
Bryan
P.S. Great blog! I read it often.
Rebel Dad
09. Sep, 2003
I have no doubt that you’re right, Bryan, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something else. With the exception of the abuse concern, the same barriers should — in theory — face men in nursing (low pay, gender stereotypes). I applaud your effort, though, and I wish you the best.
Michael Weber
10. Sep, 2003
“In addition, there are many occupations that have higher concentration of men than women that are low pay also (janitorial, farm laborers).”
I don’t buy that argument because teaching is a profession the requires a higher education. You can’t just wake up one morning and decide to teach (without a college education). So, people who want to be teachers actually have to make the effort to go and get a degree. My point is: that men who decide to get a degree may weigh the low pay in the teaching profession as a factor in deciding against teaching.
On the other hand, my profession (TV News Producer) has low pay problems at the beginning, but the “glamour” of working in TV makes it more attractive. There’s nothing in teaching that gives that attraction.
Bryan G. Nelson
11. Sep, 2003
Great point Mike.
Although that doesn’t explain the big differences in percentages of men teachers in high school versus elementary with the same pay.
We all know it isn’t only one reason, but, the complex interplay of the economics and sexism that keep men away from working with young children.
I know it can be challenged. There’s a great program in North Carolina called: Call Me Mister. It’s mission is to recruit 100 black men to be elementary school teachers.
http://www.callmemister.clemson.edu/
I hope our children will grow up seeking to be teachers of young children. (My son teaches dance).