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Gender and Education for All
THE LEAP TO EQUALITY |
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| Box 3.15. In the former socialist bloc, female teachers on the rise as real wages fall | |
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As is the case elsewhere around the world, schools in Central and South-Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are becoming increasingly feminized environments. In all the countries in the region, the majority of primary-school teachers are women and in most of the countries this is true of secondary-school teachers also. However, circumstances differ from country to country. Female teachers constitute more than 90% of all primary teachers in Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine, and between 75% and 90% in Azerbaijan, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Uzbekistan.
In most countries, the percentage of female teachers has been increasing during the transition period. Between 1991 and 2000, for example, the proportion of female secondary-school teachers in Albania doubled to 52%, and in Azerbaijan it grew rapidly to reach 79% in 1998.
Economic transition has often been associated with declining real wages for teachers, which has led to an exodus of men from the classroom. In some of
| | these countries, teachers’ salaries are no longer sufficient for basic subsistence. In others, salaries for teachers are very low compared with those available in the private sector:
‘There are cultural expectations in Azerbaijan that a male is head of the family and as such is expected to provide for the family. … Many males are forced to leave teaching to pursue other more highly paid careers. Among women, teaching is seen as a career that fits well with raising a family since a choice can be made between teaching a single (half day) or a double shift (full day)’ (UNESCO, 2000g).
School management hierarchies also reflect gender inequalities. In Uzbekistan, whereas the majority of teachers are women, most school heads are men. Women are poorly represented in management structures in Croatian schools, whereas in Azerbaijan the majority of men employed in education are school administrators and managers.
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Source: Magno et al. (2002).
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