How does gender affect the teaching profession

 I think that gender and gender roles have a lot to do with the status of the teaching profession today. The excerpt right at the beginning of the module sums up why teaching is a predominantly female dominated profession. It all stems from the fact that "our American systems are built around white middle class gender norms..." Also the fact that women could be payed less tax money than men, which stems from a history of sexism and less respect for working women. We as a society have created many stereotypes around gender. The fact is, the media has flooded our lives with all kinds of stereotypes and expectations on how men and women should act or what they should look like. Or even what kinds of morals we should hold for ourselves. A great example of this is the set of rules for teachers in 1915. This list is exclusive and only applies to women, and forces teachers to follow a set of rules where majority of them have nothing to do with their ability to educate properly. 

This also applies to the idea that we place a set of rules on every single gender to act a certain way or look a certain way, that has nothing to do with their ability to succeed, create, give and receive love or become who they are meant to be. Gender affects the teaching profession because it has imprinted an idea in our minds that because it is dominated by females, we are required to hold a stereotype about who is more eligible to educate the youth. When we hold this belief, we subconsciously do the same type of stereotyping to our students surrounding gender. 

Gender in my opinion, should not affect the teaching profession in any way. If someone is capable and good at the list of requirements it takes to hold a certain position, they should be able to hold that position. But unfortunately it does. So, as we as a society become more accepting towards who is able to educate the youth, we as teachers should do the same when we decide to become more accepting of every student and how they choose to identify. Because as I said, it does not affect their capacity and ability to succeed, and they are no less of a person.

On another hand, gender puts a lot of teachers in hot water when they do not take necessary measures to protect students of different genders. Discrimination of students based on gender by a teacher or student affects how well these students do. In the TED talk by Amber Briggle, she talks about just how many trans students take their own life due to facing discrimination in schools. While this is devastating, also take into account the amount of kids that drop out, fail, or have disciplinary problems because of how prevalent gender discrimination is in schools. Not to mention how many have gone through the school system feeling discouraged. So, gender affects the teaching profession in many ways. It affects educators because it is our job as teachers of this generation, to make every student feel accepted and comfortable, just as you would wish to feel accepted and comfortable in society, and to be able to choose any job you would like regardless of your identity.