Feminization of Teaching: Female Teachers at Primary and Lower Secondary Schools in Baden-Württemberg, Germany: From Its Beginnings to the Present

Abstract The teaching profession was one of the first in which women were allowed to practice and from today’s perspective is understood as a feminized profession. The process of feminization in teaching developed differently at various levels of school education and reached different levels of feminization over time. Primary and lower secondary schools are suitable for an empirical case study because the process of feminization first began on this level and the proportion of women here now exceeds that of all other teaching professions. We identify a variety of factors in connection with central-peripheral disparities of female participation in teaching. Some of the factors have lost importance (e.g., size of teaching staff), whereas the influence of other factors has increased (in particular part-time employment). We conclude with a short discussion of the impact of feminization on pupils’ role models.