On November 27th, Teacher’s Day was celebrated in Spain. Although for many, it should already be called “Teacher’s Day”. It turns out that for a few years now, the distribution of the sexes in the classrooms of primary and secondary schools shows a clear female hegemony. Some studies carried out in recent years state that the male presence in the teaching staff has fallen by 45% , although men have never been in the majority in the world of primary education and, in secondary schools, in a few cases.

Currently, only 25% of the teaching staff is male. How can this dramatic trend be explained?

The teachers, the vast majority in day care centres

If we thought that the differences in relation to sex were disparate, the results of the last year in Primary and Secondary Education facilitated by the Ministry of Education are at least surprising. The fact is that, in Spain today, no less than 98% of school teachers between the ages of 3 and 6 are women .

This phenomenon clearly conflicts with the idea that men and women behave in the same way. But what is the reason for this clear trend, and does it have anything to do with culture, and with the residue that traditions have left in the way of thinking of several generations?

Higher education, more teachers than professors

Another fact to bear in mind and which explains part of the matrices that society uses to differentiate between the sexes in education at the general level is that the more specialized the study or degree of education, the higher the percentage of men who teach. The trend is reversed, and the witness is the male gender: the older the student, the more men in the teaching staff .

All this and still being a minority, male teachers increase in the age of high school and compulsory secondary education. In this sense, 40% of teachers in this part of the education spectrum are male. It seems that the higher the academic professional requirement, the more males occupy the position. The same is true of higher responsibility positions, such as school directors; men are also in the majority. Thus, this difference between men and women is also reflected in the salaries that can be applied for .

How do you explain this phenomenon?

Everyone has that teacher on their retina who marked their childhood or adolescence, where she was like our second mother. That adorable person who taught at school what your parents could not give you in the family environment. Without more, the teacher was the direct extension of the mother-son relationship. And the truth is that teaching has been for centuries something that is attributed to the female gender , given that it is associated with the care of boys and girls and, consequently, with an extension of upbringing. But this does not mean that in practice it is only they who carry out this profession.

There are some explanations directly derived from the family model in the society in which we live. It could be said that the school is the reflection or the mirror where the roles between both sexes are projected .
This means that, at a general level, the idea that women represent the qualities of patience, tenderness and empathy with children has been internalized, and that these characteristics define what is feminine. In this sense, teachers are asked to be more maternal than professional.

On November 27th, Teacher’s Day was celebrated in Spain. Although for many, it should already be called “Teacher’s Day”. It turns out that for a few years now, the distribution of the sexes in the classrooms of primary and secondary schools shows a clear female hegemony.
Some studies carried out in recent years state that the male presence in the teaching staff has fallen by 45% , although men have never been in the majority in the world of primary education and, in secondary schools, in a few cases.

Currently, only 25% of the teaching staff is male. How can this dramatic trend be explained?

The teachers, the vast majority in day care centres

If we thought that the differences in relation to sex were disparate, the results of the last year in Primary and Secondary Education facilitated by the Ministry of Education are at least surprising.
The fact is that, in Spain today, no less than 98% of school teachers between the ages of 3 and 6 are women .

This phenomenon clearly conflicts with the idea that men and women behave in the same way. But what is the reason for this clear trend, and does it have anything to do with culture, and with the residue that traditions have left in the way of thinking of several generations?

Higher education, more teachers than professors