Episodes from the professional life stories of women teachers: a feminist reading

Abstract

In the modern world, women have acquired formal education, become professionals in the workforce, and are equal to men according to law. Yet cultural and social mores continue to characterize a woman as one who acts according to stereotypes. For these reasons and others, teaching has long been considered a woman's profession. Realization of the social and economic values of the modern world lies in our ability to advance intellectually. Are women teachers, who have succeeded in entering public life, able to advance in their profession through the realization of their intellectual potential? The authors examine the anomaly of continuity and change in the status of women in the teaching profession through a feminist interpretive reading. They maintain that, despite the significant changes that have occurred in how we view a woman's place in modern society, there is ‘continuity’ in the definition of the professional role of women as teachers. The reading will be based on material obtained from in‐depth interviews with teachers describing their professional outlook. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fact that women are researching the narratives of other women and analyzing women's discourse from their standpoint as women.

Keywords:

• teaching profession
• women teachers
• continuity and change
• feminist narrative
• professional life stories

Notes

1. Bialik was one of the first modern Hebrew poets whose poetry is studied in all schools in Israel.

2. Musrara is a low socio‐economic neighborhood in Jerusalem.

3. Rich distinguishes between two interpretations of the concept of ‘motherhood.’ The first is a wonderful experience, the essence of which is the potential connection of the woman to her own fertility and to her children. The second, ‘the institution of motherhood,’ is similar to a rehabilitating prison, the aim of which is to ensure that because of her potential for fertility, the woman will remain subjugated to the man. The enslavement of women to the rehabilitation system – the institution of motherhood – begins with her first pregnancy and ends only with her death. The woman takes care of her children, her grandchildren, her parents, the parents of her husband, and finally her husband. In this way, she remains chained to the institution of motherhood until her death. The transformation of the experience of motherhood to the institution of motherhood finally estranges the woman from her own body, from her own feelings and experiences.