The Feminisation of Primary Teaching in Taiwan

Introduction

Considerable research has concerned itself with the concentration of women in teaching and other occupations, and the social impact of this “feminisation”(Addi-Raccah, 2002; Drudy, 2008; Patching, 2011; Reskin & Roos, 1990; Skelton, 2002). The feminisation of primary teaching has taken place at different points in different countries’ histories. For example, Bradley (1989, p. 206) argues that primary schools in Britain “saw a clear consolidation of female numerical dominance in the profession” during the period of 1875 to 1914. By contrast, we know very little about the form and changes of the gender composition of the primary teaching profession in Taiwan, particularly regard to the impact of state policies and the cultural contexts, even though Taiwanese researchers have found that women now constitute the majority of the teaching workforce (Fwu, 1999; Yang, 2007).

This article intends to remedy the lack of relevant contemporary research in three ways. Firstly, it describes the changes and form of women’s numerical dominance in Taiwanese primary teaching. Secondly, it seeks to explain why women have become numerically dominant, by analysing the influences of state policies on the educational system and on teacher training/education. Thirdly, by linking feminisation with cultural contexts, this article argues that in Taiwan, primary teaching is regarded as women’s work, which contributes to the substantial entrance of women and may empower women in their lives. Based on the arguments that feminisation is a complex process shaped by various factors (Addi-Raccah, 2002; Skelton, 2002; Smith, 1999), this paper develops an analytical framework linking educational, social, and cultural structures with sociological arguments and empirical evidence. Therefore, the feminisation of Taiwanese primary teaching will be examined through the description of statistical data, and two areas of explanation: state policies targeted at the reforms of the educational system and of teacher training, as well as the cultural contexts which encourage women to enter primary teaching.

Methods

This study makes use of statistical data and official documents and reviews the findings of local Taiwanese research concerning the recruitment of primary teachers and teachers’ experiences and opinions. Because little research exists in this field, with some citations being over 10 years old, I therefore draw on data from my ethnographic study to support the arguments in this article. This study exploring teachers’ gender and primary teaching work was carried out between November 2008 and July 2009 at a primary school in southwest Taiwan. Non-participant observation and individual in-depth interviews are the main methods of data collection for the study. Firstly, non-participant observation was employed because observation can be conducted in the natural environment lived in by the participants, minimising the risk of the researcher altering or manipulating the natural environment (Gay & Airasian, 2003). The non-participant observation included shadowing four female and two male class teachers. Based on the aims of the ethnographic study, class teachers were selected mainly according to gender and the age range of pupils they taught. To better understand teachers’ views, both single and married teachers were included. I observed individual teachers and their teaching practices in the classrooms. The duration of shadowing every class teacher was approximately seven or eight weeks, but there were several weeks when I observed two different teachers. In addition, the observations were conducted in various settings, including staff conferences, in the executive offices, and at school events such as the graduation ceremony. In so doing, I was granted many opportunities to engage in discussions with other teachers and administrative members, and these talks broadened my understanding of what a primary schoolteacher is. Written fieldnotes were taken on every observation occasion. From a broad perspective, fieldnotes also served as private records of my personal thoughts and reflections pertaining to the ethnographic work.

O’Leary (2009) argues that by interviewing the observee, researchers are able to gather extensive data through the eyes of the observees living in the research contexts. The second method was semi-structured in-depth interviews. During the last two weeks of this research, interviews involving open-ended questions were conducted with the six class teachers shadowed, one female subject teacher, one male class teacher, and the male principal, in order to seek better gender balance. Interviews lasted one and a half hours on average and were tape-recorded. Interview data were fully transcribed, coded, and analysed. The answers from personal interviews can reveal invisible levels things like personal motivations and feelings hidden behind the choices and behaviour (Lichtman, 2006). The present article primarily focuses on interview questions about teachers’ motivations to enter teaching and their experiences of being a teacher, together with an analysis of the fieldnotes, to examine and highlight the predominance of women in the Taiwanese teaching profession.

Feminisation and Primary Teaching in Taiwan

How do we interpret feminisation? The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology offers the following definition: “An occupation is seen to be feminised to the extent that the number of women involved in it grows into a majority” (Johnson, 1995, p. 111). Some researchers (Addi-Raccah, 2002; Skelton, 2002) argue that feminisation is the consequence of disproportionate recruitment and retention of women. In short, feminisation refers to jobs numerically dominated by women. Regarding primary teaching, the labelling of primary schools as “feminised workplaces” needs to be analysed at several levels because “it seems that those who refer to teaching as feminised also assume different meanings” (Smith, 1999, p. 4), rather than merely interpreting it as a statistical judgement. For example, Griffiths (2006) highlights the point that when feminisation of primary teaching is discussed, it can either refer to the numbers of women within the profession, or a “culture” associated with women. In addition to the pure statistical standpoint, the requirement of women for younger children contributed to the feminisation of teaching at the primary educational level (Cortina & San Roman, 2006). That is, primary teaching is seen as a female-appropriate occupation that requires skills and attributes, for example, caring and nurturance, which are socially ascribed to women (Simpson, 2009).

Research suggests that in the latter part of the 20th century, the proportion of female primary school teachers increased in all geographical regions worldwide, except in the least developed countries (Cortina & San Roman, 2006; Drudy, 2008). Nonetheless, as Drudy (ibid, p. 310) specifies, “globally, there are some variations – even in primary teaching which is the most feminised sector.” Taiwan is an interesting case for the study of feminisation because due to beliefs embedded in the Chinese cultural tradition, most families have preferred educating sons to daughters. However, women are encouraged and motivated into primary teaching, which is regarded as a respectable and female-appropriate profession. A brief description of the social status and working conditions of teachers with reference to the specificity of the contexts of Taiwan and the influence of Chinese culture offers readers an overall idea of what attracts people into primary teaching before the article moves on to focus on the feminisation.

In Taiwan, teachers have been respected for their “morally and intellectually superior” image (Fwu & Wang, 2002, p. 212). It is because, like other Sino-cultural areas profoundly influenced by Confucian thought, teachers are regarded as agents of knowledge instruction, transmitters of morality and norms, and problem solvers.¹ Furthermore, in contrast to teacher training being regarded as a low status activity in some countries such as in England and France (Drudy, 2008), Taiwanese teachers possess a higher level of academic qualification, occupational prestige and a positive public image (Fwu & Wang, 2002). Fwu and Wang (ibid, p. 213) further illustrate:

Both the occupational prestige of teaching in Taiwan and the work perceptions of Taiwanese teachers reflect the fact that teachers in Taiwan are indeed more respected than their international counterparts.

Research by Shen (2004) indicates that the great majority of students taking teacher training are from lower-middle class backgrounds. They aspire to a higher social status promised by teaching (Fwu, 1999; Lin, 1990), which is viewed as a profession with upper-middle social status in Taiwanese society (Fwu & Wang, 2002). Particularly, Yang (2001) shares the conviction that daughters’ teaching jobs are highly valued by the parents in indigenous tribes as a stepping-stone to becoming upwardly mobile, since most of this population works as labourers.

Regarding working conditions, primary teaching is considered to be secure and well paid. Watannabe (2004, p. 223) analyses that in Japan, “public school teachers are civil servants with job security and relatively high salaries” and “public respect for the teaching profession, which enjoys high social status” has caused university graduates to want to enter the teaching profession. Similarly, teachers in Taiwan are employed as civil servants with permanent work. In line with Dolton’s (2006) view that teachers’ pay is “of prime importance,” as it has an important impact on how graduates make choices between becoming a teacher and taking up another occupation, the findings of the 1998 Taiwanese survey tell a similar story: apart from the work environment, steady incomes are ranked as the second most important incentive to encourage people to enter the teaching field (Chuang, 1998). Other research clearly points out that teachers are provided with relatively “handsome remuneration and benefits packages,” such as teachers still receiving full pay during one-month winter and two-month summer vacations, a 1.5-month bonus annually, subsidies to children’s education and a pension after retirement, and all of these benefits are reasons why people are being attracted to the primary teaching profession (Fwu & Wang, 2002; Li, 2013). By comparison, teachers’ salaries are higher than those in other employment and even compared to other civil servants who have similar qualifications (Wang, 2005). For example, in 1980 the salary of an initial teacher with a bachelor’s degree was nearly 21% more than those working in other employment, and gaps of starting salaries have gradually widened ever since. In other words, better remuneration and benefits provided by the Taiwanese government, together with a less competitive work environment and job security, not only ensure that teachers’ status remains high but also inspire young people of high academic ability to choose teaching as a profession (Fwu & Wang, 2002; Li, 2013; Yang, 2007).

In the sections that follow, statistical data will be used to outline the development of the situation in which a preponderance of teachers in Taiwan are female. Examining changes in the figures, feminisation is identified as a process by which the number of women increases until the occupation switches from predominately male to predominately female (Reskin & Roos, 1990), while it might not be the situation in other countries As feminisation is seen as “a cumulative historical and social process” (Drudy, 2008, p. 312), through an exploration of state educational reforms and the influences derived from Taiwanese cultural contexts favouring women’s entry into the teaching profession, a clear picture of a predominance of women in primary teaching emerges.

Description of Statistical Data

The statistical figures in Figure 1 and in Table 1 provide the most direct data to prove that the primary teaching training and profession in Taiwan is feminised. As we shall see later, statistical data also help illustrate that state policies have a critical impact on the process of feminisation.

Firstly, we will look at Figure 1 showing changes in student numbers² in Normal institutions³ prior to 1994 in Taiwan, as these so-called Normal institutions were the only legitimate institutions providing primary teacher training. Hsu (2003) also notes that the growth and predominance of female teachers in primary schools may be predicted by the increase of female students in teacher training. According to Figure 1, in primary teacher training, men overwhelmingly outnumbered women in the early stage. In 1961, only 140 out of 629 students (22.2%) were female. The number of women increased over time so that by 1976, the proportion of female students reached 50% and gradually rose in subsequent years. Changes to teacher training will be considered below as one of the explanations for the feminisation.

Figure 1

Students in primary teacher training (1961-1987)

Table 1 presents the proportion of female teachers in primary schools. In the early 1960s, female teachers constituted approximately 38% of the total teaching workforce, and the percentage increased steadily in the 1970s and onwards. By 1979, 50.1% of primary teachers were women. With a continuous rise, female dominance has been more evident in the recent two decades (also see Table 3). By the 1990s, women made up over three-fifths of the primary teaching workforce. The findings of Fwu’s (1999, p. 397) study, which analyses the 1990 Taiwanese census data, also report that primary schools were first dominated by men and that the “teaching force has shifted from male dominance to being female numerically dominant.” My case-study school is also a highly feminised case as 28 out of 41 teachers (including the principal) are females.

Table 1

Proportion of female teachers in primary schools by academic year (%)

Moreover, we can observe the shift from Table 2 presenting the distribution of teachers of different age groups. The proportion of men of the age group “55 and over” was 68.1%, considerably higher than women, who constituted just 31.9%. Nevertheless, concerning the three younger cohorts of 45-54, 35-44 and 25-34 years old, the changes were manifest: female teachers comprised 53.7%, 69.2% and 69.8% of these groups. These percentages not only reflect that, as shown in Table 1, feminisation is a process by which women have become the dominant group, but may also be telling us that the trend of feminisation is continuing. Regarding the teaching workforce, the Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) categorise high levels of feminisation as 70% or more, and medium feminisation levels as between 50-69% (Wylie, 2000). If we define a feminised occupation as having over 60 % or more women present or employed, it may be suggested that in Taiwan, the student bodies of the teacher training institutions became female-dominant in the 1980s, as indicated in Figure 1, whereas it was not until the 1990s that the teaching profession was feminised.

Table 2

Data of Taiwan ROC’s Census in 1990: Distribution of teachers in primary schools by gender and age

Recent evidence is crucial for understanding the feminisation that occurred in primary schools. It can be seen from Table 3 that between 2000 and 2010 over 66.8% of primary school teachers were female, and that the predominance of women persisted during the recent decade as the proportion of male and female teachers remained constant. Additionally, two tendencies are worth noting. Firstly, Table 3 gives us a clear indication that in the academic year of 2009, for instance, women were 98.8% of teachers in kindergartens and 67.9%, 60.4% and 33.6% of those in junior, senior secondary schools, and higher education, respectively. That is, as well as primary teaching, kindergarten, and secondary teaching in Taiwan are also feminised. Secondly, some researchers have suggested the significant rate of young women entering primary teaching (Chuang, 1998; Fwu, 1999). The state statistics provided by the MOE (2010) indicate that, in 2008, female primary teachers aged below 50 saw an increase from 85.1% in the academic year of 1999 to 91.9%, while women working in junior and senior high schools constituted 90.6 and 85.3% of their teaching workforce, respectively. Female primary school teachers seemed younger than those teaching in junior and senior high schools. The predominance of women is therefore expected to persist.

Table 3

Distribution of male and female teachers at different levels of education in Taiwan (%)

Explanations for the Feminisation

I will argue that the feminisation of primary teaching occurred as a convergence of the following processes: state policies targeted at reforms of the educational system and of teacher training since the 1960s to meet the demand for more teachers, and cultural contexts constructing primary teaching as women’s work.

Cultural Contexts: Primary Teaching as Women’s Work

As Depaepe, Lauwers, and Simon (2006, p. 155) emphasise, “the conception of ‘feminisation’ not only meant that the feminine element had become dominant in the teaching population in quantitative terms,” but it was also closely linked to “the circumstances that determine social development,” such as social and cultural characteristics, norms, and values. In addition to educational reforms, this article also directs attention to the significance of cultural contexts in the shaping of primary teaching as suitable work for women, thereby affecting women’s occupational choices. What are the Taiwanese cultural contexts that gave rise to the substantial presence of women in teaching? There is no single answer. Gender norms, teaching as a career conforming to feminine attributes, men leaving primary teaching, and women’s economic and personal independence will be considered as cultural facilitators for women entering the primary teaching profession.

Gender Norms. Taiwanese researchers have argued that owing to gender norms, parents promote the idea that primary teaching is a woman’s profession suitable for their daughters (Li, 2001; Kao, 2001; Yang, 2001). Parents’ expectations are suggested as one reason motivating women to teach (Lin, 1990; Yang, 2007). In my ethnographic study, a senior female teacher provided an example of this. She recollected that when she could not make up her mind whether to teach, her parents explicitly advised her: “For girls, being a teacher is the best option.” Her statement echoes Griffin’s (1997) view that teaching is a gendered decision.

Monetary rewards can never be considered independently from gender norms. Monetary incentives have been highlighted because of the fact that many female teachers seem to come from poor households (Chen, 1994; Liang, 1986; Lin, 1990) or from ethnic minority backgrounds (Yang, 2001). For these women, and also for males, studying in teacher training institutions offered such financial advantages as no tuition and boarding fees, some benefits and allowances during their studies, offers of jobs with permanent contracts, and pensions after graduation (Shen, 2004; Yang, 2007). As Lin (1990) claims, parents’ expectations may have been affected, manifestly or implicitly, by those material benefits. Some Taiwanese parents still hold patriarchal stereotypes of “men privileged and women humble” (nan tsun nu pei). Under such circumstances, daughters of those families always give way to the privileges of their male siblings (Parish & Willis, 1993). Chen’s (1994) and others’ (Shen, 2004; Yang, 2007) studies demonstrate that the option of studying in Normal schools is the only opportunity for daughters from poor families to advance their studies. With the fact, noted earlier, that teachers are well paid, Tsai’s (2001) study reporting that teaching jobs are highly valued by females because of the salaries serves as an indication of the attraction of material incentives for women.

The association between feminisation and gender norms can also be explained by the gendering of the labour market and career promotion. Lin’s (1990) and Yang’s (2007) studies remind us that women are highly likely to enter the teaching field because the options of professions open to women, despite having the same educational background, are comparatively restricted compared to those for men (Depaepe, Lauwers, & Simon, 2006). Additionally, gender norms also limit women’s career advancement. Owing to domestic responsibilities, women are criticised for their lack of commitment to career prospects (Acker, 1994; Griffin, 1997). Regarding teaching, the findings of a large-scale survey investigating Taiwanese principals suggest the domestic division of labour to be a disadvantage for women and their career promotions (You & Ko, 2004), although some women do display strong ambitions to pursue higher positions (Shen, 2004; Yang, 2007). To some extent, the concentration of women in classroom teaching also reflects feminisation.

My research also bears similar evidence. A female teacher of 30-years’ experience once told me that after her mother wanted her to be a barber’s assistant, her response was: “I, without a second’s hesitation, was determined to be a teacher by working hard to pass the extremely difficult entrance exams.” Her story justifies the point that being a primary teacher appears to be the best option for young women of high intellectual abilities because they have little family support and are constrained by a narrow range of occupational opportunities. In addition, women’s responses also support their concentration in classroom teaching. A female teacher commented that “women prioritise their family lives.” Another woman referred to the prevalence of the gender norms as a deterrent for women to seek career promotions:

It’s believed that marriage and having children are burdens for female teachers. This is a critical reason. This is why lots of women give up opportunities of pursuing higher posts.

She further explained:

If you (women) want to pursue career advancement as a dean or a principal, you may need to leave home… You won’t be able to look after your children. By contrast, it’ll be alright for Dads to do so as childcare is Mums’ duty. Everyone takes this for granted.

Their accounts echoed their principal’s view that “promotion is less compatible with female teachers’ household lives,” as discussed below. In fact, Taiwanese researchers have voiced their concerns about difficulties of achieving a work-life balance for female teachers in pursuit of promotions (Tsai, 2001; You & Ko, 2004). State statistics report male dominance in managerial positions: between 2001 and 2012, men held approximately 70% of principalships (MOE, 2013).

Teaching As a Career Conforming to Feminine Attributes. Another vital factor explaining the feminisation is that primary teaching is seen as a career conforming to femininity. The explanation is twofold. In the public sphere, western research has identified a stereotypical perception of working with young children as connected with motherly caring ascribed to women (Acker, 1999; Drudy, 2008). Such a connection is also evidenced in local Taiwanese research. For example, Yang (2007) claims that the female teachers interviewed, whether single or married, relate their career options to the suitability of femininity to their classroom practices, especially in establishing intimate relationships with younger pupils. Among few researchers examining ethnic minority women’s experiences, Yang (2001) identifies the fact that young women in indigenous tribes⁶ are encouraged to choose primary teaching rather than teaching in secondary schools. Young women are inculcated with the belief that being good at looking after young children is an “inborn” female trait. According to the findings of a large-scale investigation, approximately 38% of teachers respond that their role is like that of nannies (Chuang, 1998), “nannies of high quality” (Chang, Hwang, & Yang, 2000, p. 97). On the first day of my fieldwork, the female class teacher observed gave the following account of her work: “teaching younger pupils is like being a nanny.”

In the private sphere, primary teaching is seen to be highly compatible with domestic responsibilities ascribed to women. Childcare negatively impacts on women in full-time jobs (Huang & Hsiung, 1992) and teachers are no exception; however, teaching jobs offer compatibility and flexibility for women’s careers and their domestic roles (Yang, 2007). The advantages partially explain why parents support their daughters to enter the field of teaching (Yang, 2001). In my study, almost all female teachers, but men as well, agreed that women undertook a greater share of childcare and domestic chores, and, as one of them commented, “female teachers prioritise their family lives.” Another example is that in Taiwan, children are allowed to study in the primary school in which their parent(s) work(s); however, in most cases children will go to their mother’s school, and this can also be found in my case-study school.

Interestingly, the compatibility with domesticity and flexibility for childcare are also reflected in female teachers being construed as good matrimonial spouses and mothers. Evidence shows that young women with good academic achievement tend to choose to become teachers (Shih, 1999; Yang, 2001) instead of entering other professions, such as nursing (Yang, 2007), so that female teachers are viewed as good marriage partners (Li, 2001). An interesting illustration is provided by Yang (2001, p. 123), who indicates that female teachers have become “targeted” by bachelors or by parents with single sons. This is not a new finding. In the literature of the 1980s, Wu and his colleagues (1987) reported similar findings. The subject arose in a number of my observation notes and interviews. As a single female teacher described:

When I was a novice teacher, I often heard some girl schoolmates chatting about their experience of meeting some guys whom they were introduced to date.

Another single woman agreed that single female teachers were quite favoured, and she added with embarrassment: “It happened when I was young!” One married female teacher confirmed: “Female teachers do have this advantage. Indeed!” One male teacher commented that compared to men, female teachers were more welcome in terms of marriage. As for the image of good mothers imposed upon female teachers, the answers from my interviewees exemplified the compatibility between teaching work and family responsibilities. As a single female teacher expressed, “They say the working hours of female teachers are stable, and children can be looked after.” One man related the following:

Female teachers are able to look after their families, but perhaps male teachers don’t do the same? The greatest function female teachers fulfil is family responsibilities. They have stable jobs.

Men Leaving Primary Teaching. To better understand the feminisation, it is of critical importance to take into account the consequence of men leaving primary teaching while women remain in the profession. In the literature from western societies, “for men, teaching was socially defined as a stepping stone, prior to their ‘real’ career” in some male-dominated professions (Ingersoll, 2003, p. 18). In Williams’ (1992) view, men leaving may signify the most significant explanation regarding why men are a numerical minority. The responses of prospective teachers in Liang’s (1986) study help to account for the rarity of male teachers in Taiwan. Female students in teacher training display their strong willingness to enter the teaching in the future, while a high proportion of male students have a tendency to find jobs in other occupations. Men express that a dearth of career prospects and dissatisfaction with salaries are their main reasons for leaving primary teaching (Chen, 2003; Lin, 1990). Accompanied by the economic boom in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, more options of employment with better pay and positions encouraged men, and men were more likely to abandon or not to choose teaching (Yang, 2007). Consequently, more women entered teaching. Moreover, the rarity of male teachers may be a result of men’s desire for upward mobility to distance the perception that men choosing primary teaching are regarded as having taken “a step down in status” (Benton DeCorse & Vogtle, 1997, p. 38). That is, despite staying in teaching, Chen (2003) and Yang (2007) note that male teachers expect or are expected to move upward, or “kicked upstairs” (Williams, 1992, p. 256) in their careers, for example, going for principalships.

The following excerpts from my study exemplify the tendency for men to choose to leave. A female teacher offered me an address book listing detailed information about her schoolmates, as shown in Table 4. The attrition rate of men is higher than that of women. The percentage of men leaving primary teaching is 44.4%, compared to 29.7% of women who left. Among those men, one man plainly informed me that his reasons to become a secondary school teacher were, besides higher salaries in the secondary school, to dissociate himself from the social values regarding male primary teachers as inferior. His interpretation resonates with the above arguments that women are concentrated in classroom teaching, whereas men only work as teachers for a few years and then seek a more socially prestigious position. When asked about whether more male teachers left primary teaching for other employment, the principal stated:

Speaking of my classmates, the school professors all agreed that our class had had the greatest achievements… Lots of my classmates are university professors. They are upwardly mobile. Only one half of my male classmates are still working as primary teachers. Among those quitting teaching to work in administration, one is working as a chief secretary… One is a GP, and one is an artist.

From his answers, a clear tendency emerges: for male teachers, obtaining career promotions is confirmed as a male accomplishment, so that they are more likely to quit primary teaching (Chen, 2003).

Table 4

Number of teachers leaving primary teaching by gender

In contrast to female teachers being construed as suitable marriage suitors, Chen (2003) notes that male teachers are treated as unfavourable marital partners. As two interviewed teachers, one female and one male, remarked, it was because men working with young children were discriminated against as being “prospectless” so that even female teachers disliked choosing male teachers to be their husbands.

Women’s Increasing Independence. In the British context, Copelman (1996, p. 40) notes that “more than economic strategies motivated parents. Mothers sometimes saw their own desires for status and independence fulfilled in daughters’ careers.” She cited how a mother encouraged her daughter, describing the teaching profession as “something solid -you can’t be dismissed and it takes a pension,” even if “you marry and then you lost your husband or anything you could always go back to it” (ibid). Evidently, these comments support the importance of economic or personal independence in attracting women to teaching (Tsai, 2001). In response to Copelman’s view, coupled with the arguments of Taiwanese researchers and data collected from my fieldwork, women’s economic and personal independence resulting from a teaching job encourages women to teach and empowers them in their private lives.

Economic and personal independence may be reflected in women choosing to be single. A compelling idea is developed in relation to Britain by Bradley (1989, p. 207), who elucidates that teaching is a career “offering the chance of an independent life to any who might not wish to enter or be likely to succeed in the marriage market.” A survey conducted by the magazine Cheers in 2008 reports that in Taiwan, teaching was ranked as the profession with the second highest proportion of unmarried workers, only lower than that of people working as executives (Wang, 2008). As Tsai (2001) finds, the idea of the positive value of being single, rather than the idea of their being abandoned in the marriage market, is supported by female teachers. Independence and autonomy are also identified as the important characteristics single female teachers pride themselves in. My research evidence demonstrates that teaching work brings women financial advantages and autonomy, which enable women to remain single. As a single interviewee put it, “Traditionally, I am supposed to choose marriage as most women do. But, as a modern woman, I feel remaining single suits me.” Another single female teacher shadowed in this research highlighted the significance of financial independence combined with the stable work to her being single and her further plan for healthcare and ageing medical care. I also enquired what made female teachers chose to remain single. A female teacher bluntly related it to financial independence:

It (salary) is a big reason. Women may think: “I am in a good situation. My income is stable, and I have such a great job”… She wouldn’t lower her demands and find someone of lower educational qualifications or of poorer conditions than hers.

Bradley (1999, p. 104) has argued that in the UK, “dual-earning is becoming the social norm, replacing the expectation of breadwinner male and dependent wife.” Women see their earnings as a vital part of their independence, rather than “pin money.” Crompton (1997, p. 74) also argues:

Economic dependence is reflected in their subordinate position within the household. “Women’s liberation” and rising female employment has meant that an increasing number of women have rejected their subordinate roles and positions in relation with men.

Including the situation of married female teachers who seem to be less researched provides more overall insight into the relations between women’s independence and their jobs. In my research, women’s experiences provide examples of how teaching work matters in their independence. When asked about women’s decisions to enter teaching, personal and financial independence were both prioritised by married female teachers interviewed. One of them described her unpleasant experience before becoming a teacher:

I didn’t feel respected. My husband’s family thought it was, kind of, a waste. I have a university diploma, but just staying at home and looked after children. What a shame!

She further explained: “My salary is quite good. Basically, per month I take only a little amount of money from my husband.” Another married female teacher identified independence and equality in her household:

To be treated and treat each other with equality. In this respect, that is what I feel, no need to depend on my husband. I am independent and autonomous and can ensure the equality and fairness between him and me.

Their comments confirm Crompton’s (1997) argument that women’s contributions to household income may indicate egalitarian power relationships in the family. There are more crucial points here. Firstly, married women place high value on economic independence, whereby in their marriage, women are able to dissociate themselves from the stereotypical image of “dependent wife and breadwinner husband.” Secondly, being one of the financial supporters enables married women to earn more respect and higher status. The third is that women, consciously or unconsciously, display confidence owing to their equal contribution to their family life.

Conclusion

This article has examined the feminisation of primary teaching within Taiwanese contexts, a topic that should not be excluded from scholarly attention but rather further examined. My findings suggest that based on statistical figures, women are a numerical majority, and the shifts of gender composition in primary teacher training and in the teaching profession occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. That is, primary teaching in Taiwan is a case demonstrating that feminisation can be regarded as a process of the profession switching from male predomination to predominately females.

The evidence presented suggests that feminisation can be explained by changes in state policies to meet the demand for more teachers and cultural contexts constructing primary teaching as women’s work. As argued, changes in state policies, including reforms of the educational system and primary teacher training, result in more women entering teaching. Regarding cultural contexts, women choosing primary teaching are affected by gender norms because women are less supported by parents than their male siblings in education, and because of limited employment choices available to women. As Drudy (2008, p. 312) notes, “patterns of choice or lack of choice of teaching as a profession are linked to the social construction of masculinity and femininity.” Due to the gendered perception linking teaching young children with feminine attributes, as well as compatibility between teaching work and women’s domestic responsibilities, primary teaching is seen as a profession suitable for women. In contrast to the arguments centring on women’s concentration and persistence in teaching, my findings also indicate that men tend to leave primary teaching and pursue better employment and upwardly mobility. Meanwhile, it is worth questioning why men remain in the minority given the higher salaries paid in the teaching profession, as aforementioned. To distance themselves from the stereotypes regarding teaching as female-appropriate work, which is in conflict with their gender and masculinity, may help to explain men’s choices. In addition, my research findings suggest that with their teaching jobs, female teachers are conscious of their economic independence and autonomy. Importantly, the economic independence and contributions have played an important role in women remaining single and having more egalitarian power relationships in households.

The article builds on statistical data as well as findings from previous studies and my own research to suggest that primary teaching is still a statistically feminised and gender-specific profession. However, after the enactment of the Teacher Education Act in 1994, the recent employment percentages of men had a slight rise, although more qualified females than their male counterparts were employed (Li, 2013). Teaching may still attract women, but it is worth exploring further whether the withdrawal of government funding in teacher training may diminish its financial incentives to attract women into teaching. Moreover, abundant western research has highlighted the significance of recruiting more men into highly feminised primary teaching (Cushman, 2005). Despite little evidence indicating the recruitment of more male teachers as a high priority regarding current Taiwanese educational policies (Li, 2013), future research on whether more men will be recruited that may have an impact on gender composition of primary school teachers is also recommended.

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