Modernization Through Feminization?: On the History of Women in the Teaching Profession

• Published in: European education 2000-12, Vol.32 (4), p.55-78
• Main Author: Jacobi, Juliane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1056-4934; 1944-7086
• DOI: 10.2753/EUE1056-4934320455

The author's thesis-the fact that the teaching profession is marked by a very high and steadily growing percentage of women may be construed as a response to the challenge posed by the process of modernization to cultural reproduction in the school-is discussed in a brief sketch of the progress of feminization in selected European countries and in North America. The astonishingly high contribution of women to the history of reform pedagogy-an aspect until now hardly considered-buttresses the assumption that the professional image of the teacher is informed to a large degree by the feminization of the profession. This interpretation of the feminization of the profession is measured against current theses on teachers' (both male and female) professionalism that variously concern the pedagogical and social significance of the female bias in how the profession has come to see itself, the quality of the performance of women teachers, and empirical studies on how men and women teachers see their profession.