Women in Teaching: Equal Opportunities

Author(s): Department of Education Northern Ireland
Document Type: Research Paper
Year: 1999
Publication Title: DENI Research Report Series No 16
Publisher: Department of Education, Northern Ireland
Place of Publication: Bangor
Subject Area(s): Equality Issues, Education, Gender
Client Group(s): Women


Background to the Research

  • Data have been previously been collected on the number of men and women in senior education posts but there had been no definitive study into the reasons for the under-representation of women in these posts, and why in many cases women do not apply for senior positions.
  • The overall objective of this study was therefore to identify the barriers - actual or perceived - to women's progression to higher posts, including posts attracting responsibility points, so that the employing authorities can devise appropriate action plans for change.

Research Approach

  • Quantitative and Qualitative methods were combined to obtain data as follows:
    • A confidential survey questionnaire of 3,500 teachers at all levels (male and female).
    • Eleven focus group discussions (7 female and 4 male) comprising principals, vice principals and assistant teachers.
    • Twelve work diaries, completed by principals and vice principals (male and female) over a 4 week period.
    • Ten in-depth Case Study interviews with women principals with varying levels of experience.
    • A confidential survey questionnaire to a sub-sample of 585 School Governors.
    • A Story Completion exercise distributed to a random sub-sample of the School Governors in which they were asked to complete imaginary scenarios in which equal opportunities were a key factor.
    • Consultations with a wide range of individuals in the education sector.

Main Findings

The Role of the Principal

  • The Principal's role has changed since the advent of Local Management of Schools and now involves a greater degree of financial management, staff motivation and marketing of the school.
  • Principals state that a large proportion of their time is spent on routine administration and that much of this is carried out home.
  • Over 60% of teachers believe that the Principals role is 'very stressful' yet few are able to define the competencies required to carry out the role successfully.

Working Time and Patterns

  • Around 92% of teachers work longer than their contractual hours, with the average working week equating to 43 hours.
  • Women are more likely than men to carry out their additional work at home rather than at school.

Work and Domestic Responsibilities

  • Over a third of women spend over 21 hours a week on domestic responsibilities (compared to 12% of men) and this can lead to difficulties in balancing work and home.
  • Almost half of women believe that taking a career break jeopardises promotion prospects, there is a widely held view that job-sharing is not appropriate in the education sector, and many teachers believe that young women are a high risk for promotion because of the possibility of their taking maternity leave.

Women's Attitudes to Promotion

  • Women and men have very different views on the career priorities of the opposite sex. Women dramatically over-estimate the importance to men of status, pay and terms and conditions, while men significantly over-estimate how important a 'convenient' job is for women.
  • Men are much more likely than women to 'throw their hat into the ring' and apply for promotion as a gesture of ambition, whereas women want to be absolutely certain they can do the job before they apply.
  • Almost two-thirds of women but only 15% of men believe that women have to out-perform men to get promoted.
  • Key reasons for women not applying for promotion include concerns about the validity of the selection process, not wanting to give up teaching, lack of confidence in their own abilities and the possibility of a hostile reaction from others.

Training and Career Development in Schools

  • There is limited training available for those who are not yet in a managerial position but who would like to be.
  • Around one third of teachers would not seek advice on career development from their principal and women are less likely than men to feel that their principal has encouraged them in their career.
  • Both teachers and Governors believe strongly that being seen to take up training opportunities gives teachers a greater chance of being promoted.

Networking

  • Women under-estimate the amount of networking they do and are less likely than men to use their networking contacts for career development purposes.
  • Informal networks for women are not considered by women to exist.
  • Governors rate 'talking to teachers' as an important source of information about the education sector, but very few teachers state that their contact with Governors is any more frequent than twice a year.

The Role of School Governors

  • The profile of respondents to the Governors' Survey was primarily male, in full-time employment and with an average of nine years' service as a Governor. Male Governors outnumbered females by 3 to 1 in the primary, secondary and grammar sectors.
  • Well over one third of Governors do not believe that the current selection process enables them to assess candidates' abilities properly.
  • There are considerable differences of opinion between teachers and Governors about what qualities each other values in schools.
 

Home | About ORB | Contact


Disclaimer: © ORB 2001Thursday, 29-Apr-2004 15:25