Les usages de la flexibilité temporelle chez les enseignantes du secondaire

Because of its temporal flexibility, there is a widespread notion that the teaching profession is ‘woman-friendly’ or “good for women”. However, there is extensive evidence that a ‘glass ceiling’ exists for female secondary school teachers too. Based on a study of temporal perceptions and practices within the teaching profession in a gendered perspective, this paper draws on the critical discourse analysis of forty individual interviews conducted with male and female secondary school teachers and of their schedules. The aim was to examine the use they make of their time and professional flexibility. The results of our research show that gendered experiences of time are quite prominent in the profession, which partly explains the difficulties woman teachers have in attaining the most prestigious and best-paid positions. However, elaborating a typology of woman teachers’ experiences allowed us to identify alternative discourses as well, thus acknowledging the contrast between the degrees to which, within the profession, existing gender relations are either reproduced, reformed or transformed