Women Teachers in Further Education

Summary

Women teachers form a small but significant minority in the further education sector. The fact that an even smaller proportion reach senior posts requires an explanation. This paper examines the relationship between promotion prospects for women and such factors as academic and professional qualifications, geographical mobility, level of aspiration, marital status and subject area. While the disadvantaged status of women teachers can in many ways be attributed to their position in the wider society, there are a number of areas in which further education may be seen as operating a system of discrimination, albeit indirectly. The role of part‐time teachers, a large number of whom are women, is also considered. The results reported here are from the recently‐concluded NFER project on ‘Career structure for teachers in further education’. The main report of the project has been published under the title Making the Grade: Careers in FE Teaching (Bradley and Silverleaf, NFER, 1979). Whilst the present article overlaps with that report, in that the same data are drawn on, it is distinct in that it presents an analysis of the career structure as it affects women.