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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I haven't seen this mentioned, sorry if I missed it. In addition to the status/pay/parents/demands/testing issues, there have been pretty major cultural shifts in the last 30 years.

Teaching used to be the perfect "balance" job for women who wanted/needed to be in the work force but felt pressure or desired to be home when their kids are home. There is much less stigma on full-time child care now than there was even 20 years ago (I would say even 15). Especially as you get out into more rural/traditional areas. DC may have been progressive 20 years ago about women working and child care, and certainly lots of women have worked since the 70s, but there was always some level of pressure to make sure mom was still the primary caregiver.

As there has been more of a shift to equal parenting (and certainly it is nowhere near equal, but for sure there are a lot of social movements to not be so gender-specific on parenting) and less stigma around hired child care, those hours have become less of a priority for women. And its more and more rare to be able to get a job in your home district, and when you can, teacher hours often now don't line up as easily with when kids aren't in school. A lot of that "perk" has gone away both in appeal and in availability.

Nursing and teaching were really two of the few professions a woman could get into for most of the 20th century without really fighting for it or breaking barriers. Hell, my grandmother was kicked out of nursing school in the late 50's when she got married and had a hell of a time in the mid 60's finding another school to take her.

It takes a long time for career preferences to change because there are so many "cultural stories" around them. Teaching is a really good example of one that for a long time was accessible and let women "do it all." Now that the pressure has shifted (more equality in career and home responsibilities), the job isn't as desirable.

All the practical reasons everyone mentioned are true and issues to be overcome. But even if you solve those, I don't think people will flock back to teaching in droves because our cultural priorities aren't as aligned with the upsides of teaching as they once were.[/quote]

I'm a bit confused about the perk that is now missing. Are you saying because of different school start times that the schools don't line up well? I'm not understanding why the profession has changed time wise.

I do agree that the level of women working is stabilizing or even going down and yet more careers are open to women so this depletes the amount of women looking for positions. There also doesn't seem to be any push by the schools to encourage men to be teachers.[/quote]

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