Male Privilege in Teaching

Teaching is historically a female-dominated field. As education spread outside the home in the 1800s and white women became more literate to access the Bible and pass on religious beliefs in their families, they were also given the responsibility to educate the children in their communities. This fit the status of being a woman perfectly: it was part time work-during the off-season in most farming communities-and carried much less power than being superintendents for these schools. Furthermore, as the US urbanized and industrialized, men made more money working in factories. And these schools could pay women significantly less.

White women, specifically, have been and are best suited for the task of benevolently transferring white supremacy, submissiveness and conformity onto future citizens. As of 2021, 68% of teachers nationwide are white and 74% of teachers are female. We do often see male teachers in 6–12 classrooms. Additionally, seeing a male teacher of color is impressive and can be rare.

Even more, in attending a Bored Teachers Comedy show over the summer in Thousand Oaks, CA, it came to the attention of myself and my coworkers that seeing any teachers of color could be quite rare. We were in a sea of white women and educators of color were sparse.

The lack of racial and gender diversity in the teaching profession is not news to most us…