The Development of Teaching as a Profession for Women Before 1870

Abstract

. This article argues that the development of teaching as a profession for women in England has often been written using an anachronistic and gendered conception of the term ' profession '. A closer examination of the work of middle-class schoolmistresses in the first part of the nineteenth century reveals that the image of the amateurish governess was in part a fiction, which concealed the commitment and expertise of many women teachers. The mid-century reformers drew on this earlier tradition of feminine pedagogy and did not simply adopt the standards of boys' education and their male peers. On the contrary, they contributed to the ongoing process by which teachers of both sexes sought to claim the status and authority of the ' learned professions '. However, by the s, the pressure to conform to the dominant model in boys' education meant that this independent strand in education had largely been eclipsed.

Identify the Reasons of Students’ Choices for Majors and Courses

“…For example, most medical students of both genders emphasize their utilitarian pursuit to choose medical majors in universities and engage in medical occupations in the future [31]. Even tracing back to the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, females were gradually respected to become teachers for girls since teaching is regarded as a decent job for women with more and more working opportunities provided for girls in England and France [32,33]. Moreover, students who grew up in rural areas choose the major and courses that help them engage in a "decent" job to make a living [24].…”

Educating the Other

“…Still, there remained a wide gap between the ideal promoted by Marie Grant and the everyday reality in less well-off families, as the application of her precepts required a certain level of prosperity. Grant's extension of the maternal role to governesses corresponded to a domestic ideal 87 while off ering the possibility to assert professional authority. In this way, the foreign governess became a model of professional success for the young women who were taught in Wallachian pensionnats.…”

Las maestras de párvulos: ¿Madres o maestras?

“…Los trabajos sobre la profesionalización de los docentes han ido paralelos a los de la feminización (DE BELLAIGUE, 2001): la profesionalización se ha medido a través de la puesta en marcha de controles tanto para empezar (títulos, exámenes), a través del establecimiento de una formación específica, de la aparición de asociaciones profesionales y de la aparición de un "espíritu de cuerpo". En ese contexto, hay trabajos que se han centrado en estudiar las características especiales de esa profesionalización en el caso de las maestras, viendo cómo la profesión evoluciona de forma diferenciada sobre todo porque los procesos de profesionalización son regidos por los valores masculinos, sin que ni las asociaciones ni las instituciones que intentan mejorar la formación de los docentes hagan nada para eliminar los efectos del género en la profesión ( VAN ESSEN & ROGERS, 2003).…”