SOCIAL PORTRAIT OF THE FEMALE TEACHER (on the example of the Tyumen Region)

Abstract

The article presents official statistical data that indicate the prevalence of women in the teaching staff of general education in Russia and some other countries. Structural feminization of education requires a study of social-cultural and other consequences of this social-professional phenomenon. The authors combine the consequences of teachers’ feminization into two groups: assimilation of the predominantly feminist model of behavior and gender asymmetry in education. The article aims at describing social characteristics of female teachers in Russia and the impact of the teaching profession on the daily life of women based on the surveys (in 2015 and 2016) conducted by the Sociological Laboratory of the Tyumen State University on the representative quota-nesting sample. The authors focus on social rather than professional characteristics of female teachers in Russia, that is why they chose the following indicators: satisfaction with the current social status; proportion of time free from professional and household activities; state of health; look into the future. The main contradictions and peculiarities of everyday life of female teachers were outlined: there is a low level of dissatisfaction with one’s social position due to the awareness of one’s social status and specific social expectations for women due to the prevailing traditional models of female roles; female teachers assess ones’ state of health higher than an average Russian woman due to the strong social capital providing a higher level of social support, which is acquired in the course of professional activities. Perhaps, this is also the reason why the share of female teachers that perceive their future negatively starts to grow later than on average in Russia.

Keywords

• teacher
• school
• education system
• quality of life
• social well-being
• social mood
• sociology of education