Men-Women Ratio in the Teaching Profession in the Case of a School Institution in San Pablo City: a Study on Gender Issues

Abstract

The teaching profession in the Philippines as well as in many other nations is clearly dominated by women. Men’s participation in this field of profession is very minimal in that in the Philippines, men do not make up at least fifty percent of the population of grade school teachers. The conception of this research “Men-Women Ratio in the Teaching Profession in the Case of a School Institution in San Pablo City: A Study on Gender Issues,” is brought about by this unequal number of men and women teachers and the researcher aims to understand this situation. The study area, San Pablo Central School, wherein men teachers constitute only 12.3% of the teaching staff while women constitute an overwhelming 87.7%, was chosen for convenience of sampling. The theoretical framework employed in this study is the Gender Analysis Framework which is a tool, used to facilitate Gender Analysis which helps to raise questions, analyze information, and develop strategies to increase women's and men's participation in and benefits from projects and programs. It aims to achieve gender equity rather than gender equality, with gender equity taking into consideration the differences in women's and men's lives and recognizes that different approaches may be needed to produce outcomes that are equitable and gender equality failing to recognize that equal treatment will not produce equitable results, because women and men have different life experiences. Thus, the dominance of women in the teaching profession may be brought about by the different experiences that they have from men. The study was conducted using the descriptive research design. An interview with some teachers and students of San Pablo Central School along with parents who have children studying in the said institution was conducted to gather information and personal opinions which aided the researcher to come up with generalizations and conclusions. The research instruments used were library and World Wide Web research and interviews. The information gathered from the interviews and researches made by the researcher showed that the dominance of women in the teaching profession, in terms of their number, was brought about by the society’s view that the characteristics attributed to women makes them better candidates for the profession. This view was a result of the patriarchal society that the Philippines has which was introduced when the Spaniards occupied the country. Women teachers experience some difficulties in meeting the expectations of society that since they are women, they are supposed to be better than men in the field of teaching. But women teachers also enjoy the possible career development opportunities open for them in this field. Since more women are in the teaching profession, they have a greater chance of being promoted to supervisory positions. On the other hand, men who aspire to enter the teaching profession may also encounter difficulties since they are entering a “domain” which is generally for women. The unequal number of men and women teachers brings forth negative and positive outcomes not only to women but to men as well. This phenomenon is a manifestation of how a patriarchal society affects people of both sexes.