Women constitute almost all of the teaching workforce at the pre-primary level, while they represent less than half of it at the tertiary level. Over the past decade, there has been a gradual increase in this gender gap from primary level to upper secondary level, but a decrease at the tertiary level.
On average across OECD countries, the share of teachers over 50 years old at primary and secondary levels combined has increased by 3 percentage points over the decade. However, teachers are getting younger in a third of OECD countries.
In most countries, teachers above 50 years old constitute a large share of the teaching force. Among men, the share of younger teachers (below 30) at the upper secondary level is below 15% in most OECD countries with available data.
Education at a Glance 2018
Indicator D5. Who are the teachers?
Figure D5.1. Gender distribution of teachers (2016)
1. Pre-primary includes early childhood education.
2. All tertiary includes post-secondary non-tertiary education.
3. Public and government-dependent private institutions only for all levels except for tertiary. For tertiary education, public institutions only.
Countries are ranked in descending order of the share of female teachers in tertiary education.
Source: OECD / UIS / Eurostat (2018), Table D5.2 and Education at a Glance Database, http://stats.oecd.org/. See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Context
The demand for teachers depends on a range of factors, including average class size, required instruction time for students, use of teaching assistants and other non-classroom staff in schools, enrolment rates at the different levels of education, and starting and ending age for compulsory education. With large proportions of teachers in several OECD countries set to reach retirement age in the next decade, and/or the projected increase in the size of the school-age population, governments will be under pressure to recruit and train new teachers. Given compelling evidence that the calibre of teachers is the most significant in-school determinant of student achievement, concerted efforts must be made to attract top talent to the teaching profession and provide high-quality training (OECD, 2015[1]) (Stigler and Hiebert, 1999[2]).
Teacher-retention policies need to promote work environments that encourage effective teachers to continue teaching. In addition, as teaching at the pre-primary, primary and lower secondary levels remains largely dominated by women, the gender imbalance in the teaching profession and its impact on student learning warrant detailed study (OECD, 2017[3]).
Other findings
On average across OECD countries, 12% of primary teachers are under the age of 30. The United Kingdom has the largest proportion of primary teachers (31%) under the age of 30 of all countries with available data. By contrast, in Italy and Portugal, only 1% of primary teachers are in that age group.
At the primary level, the median of the average ages of teachers across OECD countries is about the same for men and women (44 years old). Men tend to be slightly older in higher levels of education (starting from lower secondary). The difference is the largest in tertiary education where the median of the average ages across countries is 48 for male teachers and 46 for female teachers.
Analysis
Teachers’ age distribution
Teachers’ age distribution varies considerably across countries and can be affected by a variety of factors, such as the size and age distribution of the population and the duration of tertiary education, as well as by teachers’ salaries and working conditions. Declining birth rates, for example, may drive down the demand for new teachers, and longer tertiary education can delay the entrance of teachers into the labour market. Competitive salaries, good working conditions and career development opportunities may attract young people to teaching in some countries and, in others, may help to retain effective teachers.
On average across the OECD, more than half of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary teachers are between the ages of 30 and 49.
Young teachers (below the age of 30) – make up only a small proportion of the teaching population: 12% in primary education, 10% in lower secondary and 8% in upper secondary, on average across the OECD. This pattern is particularly striking at the upper secondary level: in nearly two-thirds of the countries with available data, teachers below age 30 make up less than 10% of the teaching population. They account for less than 5% of teachers in the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain (Table D5.1).
In contrast, a high share of teachers are 50 or older. This share increases with education levels, from 31% in primary education to 35% in lower secondary and 38% in upper secondary education. This pattern is again quite striking at the upper secondary level, where older teachers account for more than 30% of all teachers in 28 out of 35 countries with available data. There is, however, a high level of cross-country variation, with figures ranging from 12% in Turkey to 63% in Italy for upper secondary education.
Across OECD countries with available data, the average age of teachers tends to be slightly greater in higher education levels compared to lower ones for both men and women. In half of the countries with available data, female secondary teachers are, on average, over age 45 and male secondary teachers are over age 46. In comparison, at the pre-primary level, female teachers are under age 42 and male teachers are under age 39 in half of the countries with available data. However, this last result should be interpreted with caution as, on average across the OECD, men make up only 3% of the teaching workforce at the pre-primary level.
Overall, the distribution of the average ages of female teachers only varies slightly between primary and tertiary education levels. The difference in teachers’ average age across education levels is greater among men than women. Among countries with available data, the median average age of male teachers at the primary level is four years less than the median average age of male teachers at the tertiary level. For female teachers, this difference drops to only one year. These results mask stronger variations across countries. For example, in Canada, the difference between the average age of primary teachers and the average age of tertiary teachers is the same for men and women (4 years). In contrast, larger differences between the average age of primary and tertiary teachers are observed for men and women in countries such as Korea and the United Kingdom: primary female teachers in Korea and the United Kingdom are respectively 6 and 8 years younger than their peers teaching at tertiary level. Among men, this difference rises to 13 years in Korea and 12 years in the United Kingdom (Figure D5.2).
Figure D5.2. Distribution of the average ages of teachers, by gender and education level (2016)
Source: OECD / UIS / Eurostat (2018), Education at a Glance Database, http://stats.oecd.org/. See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
The ageing of the teaching force has a number of implications for education systems across countries. In addition to prompting recruitment and training efforts to replace retiring teachers, it may also affect budgetary decisions. In most school systems, teachers’ salaries increase with years of teaching experience. Thus, the ageing of teachers increases school costs, which can in turn limit the resources available for other initiatives (see Indicator D3).
Trends in teachers’ ages between 2005 and 2016
On average across OECD countries with available data for both years, the share of teachers age 50 and older has increased by 3 percentage points over the decade, for primary to upper secondary education combined. Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia saw an increase of over 10 percentage points (Education at a Glance Database), although in Poland the share of teachers of age 50 and older remains lower than the OECD average.
Around one-third of the countries with available data (Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States) exhibit a negative change in the percentage of teachers of age 50 or older, which indicates that the teaching population is getting younger. This may be explained, in part, by efforts to implement teacher recruitment policies. For instance, the United Kingdom, which has seen the largest decrease in the share of older teachers, launched an ambitious recruitment campaign in the early 2000s.
In countries where the school-age population has increased over this period (see Indicator B1), new teachers will be needed to replace the staff who will reach retirement over the next decade. Governments may have to develop teacher-training programmes and increase incentives for students to join the teaching profession (see Indicator D6 in (OECD, 2014[4])). In addition, fiscal constraints (particularly driven by pension obligations and healthcare costs for retirees) may put pressure on governments to reduce academic offerings, increase class size or integrate more self‑paced online learning (Peterson, 2011[5]).
Gender profile of teachers
On average across OECD countries, more than two-thirds of teachers are women, in all levels of education combined. The highest proportions of female teachers, however, are concentrated in the earlier years of schooling, and the share shrinks at each successive level of education. Indeed, while women represent 97% of the teaching staff in pre‑primary education on average across OECD countries, they represent 43% at the tertiary level (Table D5.2).
At the pre-primary level, women make up at least 90% of the teaching population in all countries with available data, except France (89%) and the Netherlands (88%). In primary education, the share of female teachers averages 83% in OECD countries, and it is above 60% in all OECD and partner countries except India (51%), Saudi Arabia (53%) and Turkey (59%).
In lower and upper secondary education, although female teachers continue to dominate, the proportion of male teachers is larger than at earlier levels. In lower secondary education, 69% of teachers on average across OECD countries are women. In fact, they represent at least 50% of the teaching staff at this level in all countries with available data except India (45%), Indonesia (49%) and Japan (42%).
At the upper secondary level, the share of female teachers’ drops to 59% on average across OECD countries though this can vary from 30% in Japan to 80% in Latvia. It also varies considerably between programmes. On average across OECD countries, women represent 62% of teachers in general programmes and 56% of teachers in vocational programmes. In some countries such as Estonia, Finland and Hungary, the share of female teachers in general programmes is 15 percentage points higher than in vocational programmes, even though women still make up the majority of vocational teachers in these countries.
At the tertiary level, the gender profile of teachers is reversed, with men making up the majority across OECD countries and female teachers representing 43% of the teaching staff on average. In fact, among countries with available data, only Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Russian Federation have more than 50% of female teachers in tertiary education. The smallest share of female tertiary teachers in the OECD is found in Japan (27%). Among partner countries, the smallest share of tertiary teachers is in Colombia (37%).
Why do so few men decide to teach at the lower levels of education? One explanation may be cultural: social perceptions of links between gender and vocations may influence men and women’s career choices. This gender bias often arises very early, at home, when parents have aspirations for their children’s professions based on gender stereotypes (Croft et al., 2014[6]) (Kane and Mertz, 2012[7]) (OECD, 2015[1]). Even among teaching positions themselves, there are gender imbalances across the different fields of education. At the lower secondary level, women make up a lower share of teachers in science, mathematics and technology than in the overall teaching population (OECD, 2014[8]) (OECD, 2017[3]). This also may result from the social perception of science as being a masculine domain, which may discourage women from pursuing tertiary studies in that field (OECD, 2014[8]).
From an economic point of view, the choice of future jobs is also influenced by young people’s expectations for future earning potential. In every country with available data, male teachers earn less than their male tertiary-educated counterparts in other professions, while female teachers in primary and lower secondary education earn virtually the same as women with a tertiary degree in other fields (see Indicator D3 and (OECD, 2017[3]). These differences in relative salaries for men and women are likely to make the teaching profession more appealing to women, especially at the lower levels of education.
The potential impact of this gender imbalance in the teaching profession on student achievement, student motivation and teacher retention is worthy of study, especially in countries where few men are attracted to the profession (Drudy, 2008[9]) (OECD, 2005[10]) (OECD, 2009[11]). While there is little evidence that a teacher’s gender has an impact on student performance (e.g. (Antecol, Eren and Ozbeklik, 2012[12]) (Holmlund and Sund, 2008[13])), aiming for better balance across genders can nevertheless have positive effects on all students. In particular, there is evidence that female teachers’ attitudes towards some school subjects, such as mathematics, can influence their female students’ achievement (Beilock et al., 2010[14]) (OECD, 2014[15]). Furthermore, male teachers can serve as role models and contribute to students developing positive gender identities, particularly for those students who do not have many positive male role models in their lives.
The gender distribution of school leadership staff does not reflect the gender mix among teachers (OECD, 2014[15]). While the proportion of male teachers in primary schools is relatively small in many countries, there is an over‑representation of male principals. This suggests that male teachers tend to be promoted to principal positions more often than female teachers, although most of them are recruited from the ranks of teachers who are mostly women (see Indicator D6 in (OECD, 2016[16]).
Share of male and female teachers by age group and level of education
The higher proportion of women among young teachers, together with the predominance of female tertiary graduates in the field of education (see Education at a Glance Database), may raise concerns about future gender imbalances at the primary to upper secondary levels, where women already dominate the profession.
Gender and age imbalances in the teaching profession can be analysed through at least two lenses: the age distribution among both female and male teachers, and the gender distribution of teachers in each age group. In most countries, the share of women is higher among young teachers (below age 30) than among older teachers (age 50 or older). At the primary level, the difference between the two age groups is rather small, with 84% of women in the younger group, compared to 82% in the older group, on average across OECD countries (Table D5.3). At lower secondary level, the difference is also small on average: women make up 70% of teachers under the age of 30, and 66% of those of age 50 or older. The difference grows larger at the upper secondary level: on average across OECD countries, 62% of teachers under age 30 are women, compared to 56% in the older group.
However, at the tertiary level, where female teachers are a minority on average, the higher share of women among the younger generation of teachers suggests an increase in gender parity. On average across OECD countries, the share of female tertiary teachers is closer to 50% (i.e. an equal gender distribution) among the younger group, with 52% of female teachers under age 30, and 38% age 50 or older.
These indicators are consistent with the gender distribution dynamics observed over the decade, which point to a gradual increase in the gender gap in the teaching profession at the primary and secondary level, but a decrease at the tertiary level. On average, for all OECD countries with data for both years, the rise in the share of female teachers between 2005 and 2016 has widened the gender gap by 3 percentage points for the primary and secondary levels combined, while it has narrowed the gap by 4 percentage points at the tertiary level. At the primary and secondary levels combined, this difference reaches over 5 percentage points in countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Korea. At the tertiary level, the gender gap has decreased considerably in many countries, with a change of at least 7 percentage points in Belgium, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The gender gap at tertiary level has widened by 8 percentage points in the Russian Federation, where women represent almost 60% of tertiary teachers in 2016.
These persistent gender imbalances in the teaching profession have raised a number of concerns, and countries such as the United Kingdom have implemented policies encouraging the recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive teacher workforce, including in terms of gender (OECD, 2017[3]) (OECD, 2014[8]).
These findings suggest that it is more likely to have male teachers of older age groups with increasing levels of education. In most countries with available data, teachers over age 50 represent a large share of the male teaching force at secondary level. The share of younger teachers (under age 30) is below 15% in almost all of OECD countries with available data, except in Chile (19%) and Turkey (20%). Even in countries where men represent most of the teaching workforce, as in Japan and Switzerland, they are more likely to belong to older age groups. In fact, in some countries, the majority of male teachers in upper secondary education are above age 50. In Italy, 63% of male teachers in upper secondary are above age 50, the largest share across OECD and partner countries.
Figure D5.3. Age distribution of male teachers in secondary education (2016)
1. Public institutions only.
2. Upper secondary includes programmes from post-secondary non-tertiary education.
3. Upper secondary includes short-cycle tertiary.
4. Private institutions are not included for upper secondary education.
Countries are ranked in descending order of the share of male secondary teachers below the age of 30.
Source: OECD / UIS / Eurostat (2018), Education at a Glance Database, http://stats.oecd.org/. See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Definitions
Instructional personnel (teachers) include two categories:
Teachers’ aides and teaching/research assistants include non-professional personnel or students who support teachers in providing instruction to students.
Teaching staff refers to professional personnel directly involved in teaching to students. The classification includes classroom teachers, special-education teachers and other teachers who work with a whole class of students in a classroom, in small groups in a resource room, or in one-to-one teaching situations inside or outside a regular class. At the tertiary level, academic staff include personnel whose primary assignment is instruction or research. Teaching staff also include department chairpersons whose duties include some teaching, but exclude non-professional personnel who support teachers in providing instruction to students, such as teachers’ aides and other paraprofessional personnel.
Methodology
For more information, please see the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018: Concepts, Standards, Definitions and Classifications (OECD, 2018[17]) and Annex 3 for country-specific notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Lithuania was not an OECD member at the time of preparation of this publication. Accordingly, Lithuania does not appear in the list of OECD members and is not included in the zone aggregates.
Source
Data refer to the academic year 2015/16 and are based on the UNESCO-UIS/OECD/EUROSTAT data collection on education statistics administered by the OECD in 2017 (for details, see Annex 3 at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Note regarding data from Israel
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and are under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
References
[12] Antecol, H., O. Eren and S. Ozbeklik (2012), “The Effect of teacher gender on student achievement in primary school: Evidence from a randomized experiment”, IZA Discusssion Papers, No.6453, http://ftp.iza.org/dp6453.pdf (accessed on 20 April 2018).
[14] Beilock, S. et al. (2010), “Female teachers' math anxiety affects girls' math achievement.”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 107/5, pp. 1860-3, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910967107.
[6] Croft, A. et al. (2014), “The second shift reflected in the second generation”, Psychological Science, Vol. 25/7, pp. 1418-1428, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614533968.
[9] Drudy, S. (2008), “Gender balance/gender bias: the teaching profession and the impact of feminisation”, Gender and Education, Vol. 20/4, pp. 309-323, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540250802190156.
[13] Holmlund, H. and K. Sund (2008), “Is the gender gap in school performance affected by the sex of the teacher?”, Labour Economics, Vol. 15/1, pp. 37-53, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2006.12.002.
[7] Kane, J. and J. Mertz (2012), “Debunking myths about gender and mathematics performance”, Notices of the AMS, Vol. 59/1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/noti790.
[17] OECD (2018), OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018: Concepts, Standards, Definitions and Classifications, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en.
[3] OECD (2017), “Gender imbalances in the teaching profession”, Education Indicators in Focus, No. 49, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/54f0ef95-en.
[16] OECD (2016), Education at a Glance 2016 : OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2016-en (accessed on 12 January 2018).
[1] OECD (2015), “What lies behind gender inequality in education?”, PISA in Focus, No. 49, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5js4xffhhc30-en.
[4] OECD (2014), Education at a Glance 2014 : OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2014-en.
[8] OECD (2014), PISA 2012 Results: What Students Know and Can Do (Volume I, Revised edition, February 2014): Student Performance in Mathematics, Reading and Science, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208780-en.
[15] OECD (2014), TALIS 2013 Results: An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264196261-en.
[11] OECD (2009), Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264068780-en.
[10] OECD (2005), Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264018044-en.
[5] Peterson, P. (2011), Saving Schools : From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
[2] Stigler, J. and J. Hiebert (1999), The Teaching Gap : Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom, Free Press, New York, NY, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED434102 (accessed on 20 April 2018).
Indicator D5 Tables
Table D5.1. Age distribution of teachers (2016)
Table D5.2. Gender distribution of teachers (2016)
Table D2.3. Gender distribution of teachers by age group (2016) and percentage of female teachers for all ages (2005, 2016)
Cut-off date for the data: 18 July 2018. Any updates on data can be found on line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-data-en. More breakdowns can also be found at http://stats.oecd.org/, Education at a Glance Database.
Table D5.1. Age distribution of teachers (2016)
Percentage of teachers in public and private institutions, by level of education and age group, based on head counts
1. Primary education includes pre-primary programmes.
2. Upper secondary includes programmes from lower secondary vocational and post-secondary non-tertiary education.
3. For Ireland, public institutions only. For Israel, private institutions are included for all levels except for pre-primary and upper secondary levels.
4. Upper secondary includes post-secondary non-tertiary education.
5. Upper secondary includes short-cycle tertiary.
Source: OECD/UIS/Eurostat (2018). See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Please refer to the Reader’s Guide for information concerning symbols for missing data and abbreviations.
Table D5.2. Gender distribution of teachers (2016)
Percentage of female teachers in public and private institutions by level of education, based on head counts
Note: The data in “All levels of education” do not include early childhood educational development (ISCED 01).
1. Pre-primary includes early childhood education.
2. Upper secondary vocational includes lower secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary vocational programmes.
3. Public and government-dependent private institutions only for all levels except for tertiary. For tertiary education, public institutions only.
4. For Ireland, public institutions only for all levels except pre-primary, where data include independent private institutions only. For Israel, private institutions are included for all levels except for pre-primary and upper secondary levels.
5. Public and government-dependent private institutions only for primary, lower secondary and tertiary education.
6. Year of reference 2015.
Source: OECD/UIS/Eurostat (2018). See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Please refer to the Reader’s Guide for information concerning symbols for missing data and abbreviations.
Table D5.3. Gender distribution of teachers by age group (2016) and percentage of female teachers for all ages (2005, 2016)
Percentage of female teachers, by age group and level of education
1. Upper secondary includes post-secondary non-tertiary education (only for 2005 for Belgium, the Czech Republic and France).
2. Upper secondary includes programmes from lower secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary vocational education.
3. Public and government-dependent private institutions only for all levels except for tertiary. For tertiary education, public institutions only.
4. For Ireland, public institutions only. For Israel, private institutions are included for all levels except for pre-primary and upper secondary levels.
5. Post-secondary non-tertiary education included in upper secondary and in all tertiary.
6. Upper secondary includes short-cycle tertiary education.
7. Public and government-dependent institutions only for primary, lower secondary and tertiary education.
8. All tertiary includes post-secondary non-tertiary education.
9. All tertiary includes part of upper secondary vocational education.
Source: OECD/UIS/Eurostat (2018). See Source section for more information and Annex 3 for notes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2018-36-en).
Please refer to the Reader’s Guide for information concerning symbols for missing data and abbreviations.