Women Who Teach Teachers

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Abstract
While conducting a wider ethnographic study into the job of educating teachers in one small college of higher education it became evident that structural differences existed between the men and women in the education department. Women were generally more experienced and better qualified than their male colleagues but tended to have less posts of responsibility and heavier teaching loads. However only two of the 10 women tutors in the department made any direct reference to the issue of gender in relation to their working lives. It seemed that the majority of the women tutors did not see or acknowledge any disadvantage. This paper investigates possible reasons why some women tutors do not recognise their situation as one of disadvantage. Some of the women tutors may not hold feminist views in relation to their working life. Some of the women tutors may believe that the fact of their own employment demonstrates that there are no bars to the employment of women but have not analysed the actuality of their working conditions further than issues of access. The paper argues that values of neutrality, impartiality and professionalism have served to disguise gendered power relations in teaching and teacher education and this influence will not always be recognised where the ‘common‐sense’ hegemony of male dominance is masked by a version of gender neutrality. The paper draws on interviews with three key informants, Nora, a senior manager and Susan and Monica, two grass roots tutors, who do recognise that their work is shaped by gendered regimes. Through their perspectives the paper illuminates some of the dilemmas which characterise what it is like being a woman doing the job of educating teachers.