Education in modern years has been a female dominated career, with 77 percent of public school teachers being women in the 2020-2021 school year. Although, this doesn’t mean that women haven’t faced their own adversity in the field.
With International Women’s Day approaching on March 8th, now is a good time to consider Braintree High’s female teachers and how they feel their gender has affected their career. One issue that women in education face is harsh criticism for the way they run their classroom, especially in ways that male teachers are less likely to see.
“Women who present a little bit more powerful tend to be seen as cranky, or having an attitude, as when men are acting in that way, they’re just being men,” stated Katherine Wood, a Calculus Teacher at BHS, “As a young woman, it is more challenging to be seen as that force in the class without being called some colorful language.
Although some might write off Wood’s ideas as an opinion, they have a large amount of backing to them. A Georgia Tech Study placed 1,200 undergraduate students in a principles of economics course, and had them rate male and female professors. Some ratings were after the first day of class, while others were after their first feedback.
In this study, it was revealed that even on the first day, “female instructors were rated significantly lower than male instructors” on the ratings of “recommend course, recommend instructor, and interesting”. That wasn’t all, however, as after the first feedback, male professors were even rated “more caring and approachable than their female counterparts”.
The study revealed that women educators are more harshly criticized by their students. Despite this, women play an important role in furthering the education of all different types of students. It’s important for students to see those who represent them in the fields that they want to go into.
“Any time you can have a whole range of different point of views in the classroom, that’s really important for students to know the wide range of things they can do”, claims Wood, “So, if all they ever have is a male math teacher, then you start forming ideas of what you can and can’t do.”
It’s not just math that is male dominated. Despite women making up so much of the education workforce for the US, their representation is lacking in the highest levels of administration. Women only make up 38% of administrative roles.
“What I think is crucial for administrators is that we have a balance, that we can’t be the same,” Nancy Moynihan, BHS House 2 Vice Principal stated, “when I sit in those interviews, I’m looking for people with a different skill set than mine. We need all perspectives, and female administrators are a big part of that.”
It’s important to encourage women to go into whatever roles they want because each individual person brings new skills to the table, and women in education light the pathway for female students to see people like themselves following those dreams.
This International Women’s Day, remember your female teachers and the effort that they put into your education.
“I really appreciate all of the students I’ve taught over the years, they’re all wonderful,” explained Wood, “I hope I’ve inspired any of them to follow whatever career path they want.”
