Gender, education and employment in education in Britain

This paper proposes to examine the place of women in education today as pupils and students, and that of women working in education as teachers and academics. Looking at contemporary social phenomena it traces trends in the education of girls since the 1970s and looks at the status and salaries of women working in education in contemporary Britain and in particular in the higher echelons of the educational field. While girls have equalled and surpassed boys in educational achievement, the subjects studied and level of study remain clearly gendered. Women’s presence in the teaching profession has spread from the primary sector upwards. This has not been accompanied by equivalent levels of pay or responsibility. Awareness of this phenomenom grew at the end of the twentieth century and, in a political climate where social equality had become a priority, attempts to counter this insidious discrimination came from both pressure groups and government policy. These have yet to produce widespread results despite renewed legislation against discrimination