The rise of women across most professions has been one of the most striking social revolutions of the past 50 years. Women are beginning to achieve positions of power in greater numbers. But there is one profession bucking this positive trend: teaching.

In 1927, women made up nearly 60 per cent of headteachers in England and Wales. Today, although the proportion of women primary heads is increasing (see “Dominant Males?” box, right), that figure has actually dropped - to 53.1 per cent. This is despite the fact that women predominate in schools, making up nearly 70 per cent of the teaching force.

“There is an enormous imbalance, especially at primary level,” says Merryn Hutchings, reader in education and deputy director of the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at the University of North London. “Men make up just 11.8 per cent of primary classroom teachers, yet 41.5 per cent of primary heads are men. It’s a huge discrepancy.”

At secondary level, the figures are less alarming, but the same trend holds true: women make up 53.2 per cent of teachers, but just 27.8 per cent of heads.

The government is trying to attract more men into the classroom, but seems less concerned at the under-representation of women at senior level, according to Dr Mary Thornton of the University of Hertfordshire’s department of education.

Dr Thornton, who has conducted extensive research into gender inequalities in primary teaching, says: “We’ve been mapping the presence of men in teaching over the past century, and despite the general decline there is still a disproportionate number of male headteachers.

“Yet there is no sign that the government is taking it as seriously as the shortage of male teachers.”

Research suggests there are various reasons why women are not progressing to the upper echelons. One of the most significant is women taking time out to have children.

Ms Hutchings’ research, published by the Institute for Public Policy Research, found that mothers who have taken a career break frequently return to compete for promotion with candidates five to 10 years younger.

Women tend to be older getting their first headship. Indeed, of primary teachers with more than 20 years’ experience, one man in two is a head, but only one woman in five; at secondary level, 15.9 per cent of men are heads or deputy heads compared with 9.2 per cent of women.

Hilary Bills, head for seven years at Holy Head primary school in Wednesbury, had just that experience. “I took seven years out to have my daughters, and when I returned there was a man exactly the same age as me. He was head when I was a deputy. He was effectively seven years further up the career ladder. It says it all really.”

On the other hand, she was promoted rapidly when she did go back into teaching. “I wasn’t particularly desperate to become a head, but you see someone else doing the job and you realise you can do it too.”

Personal motivation seems another big factor. Fewer women aspire to headship. “It’s not that men are more ambitious, but they just assume they will get the headships,” says Ms Hutchings.“I often hear my male students saying they are aiming to be deputy heads within five years - I never hear the women saying that.”

Gwen Evans, deputy general secretary at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers - herself a secondary head in London for 10 years - puts it down to “tidy handwriting syndrome” - women teachers tend to be perfectionists, just as girls are about their school work. She says: “They tell themselves they’re not good enough and have to do their existing job perfectly before they can move up. It’s very self-limiting.”

Colette Singleton, assistant director of leadership programmes at the National College for School Leadership, agrees women undersell themselves. Ms Singleton, a secondary head for eight years, says: “They have this dreadful habit of blaming failure on themselves, and tend to undervalue their skills.

“When it comes to promotion they get a job description and if they can’t tick off and feel highly competent in every requirement they tend to feel it’s not for them, whereas men are much more prepared to wing it.”

But it is not a just lack of confidence. A recent National Union of Teachers’ survey on women and senior management suggests that a third of female teachers are reluctant to upset their work-life balance by taking on a time-consuming headship: 16 per cent said this was a deterrent to seeking a senior post.

Of the respondents who had never applied for a promotion, the biggest reason they gave was a wish for more balance in their lives, and a feeling that a senior post would not fit in with domestic responsibilities.

“Women often go into teaching in the first place because it’s a family-friendly job,” says Ms Hutchings. “Headship, on the other hand, is not.”

Gwen Evans agrees: “As a deputy I took work home, as a head I took the job home. You’re always on call, even on holiday, and end up tending to do all the stupid little tasks the school hasn’t got the money to pay anyone else to do. Classroom teachers often see the head running around, clearly under stress.”

Women are also reluctant to give up their classroom role, she believes, because they love teaching.

“As a head, you don’t get the satisfaction of long-term close working relationships with pupils. But being a head has its own rewards - there is something utterly intoxicating about a whole-school assembly with 1,000 people all hanging on your every word.”

Ms Evans also thinks the traditional male-oriented, top-down militaristic management style of schools puts many women off. “It’s a very simple, rather stereotyped, model of leadership, and does entail huge risk. Not quite as much as managing a football team but not far off. Look at the number of times an adverse inspection report is followed by the departure of the head. Women are not brought up to be risk-takers.”

Women often miss out on the kind of mentoring or sponsorship that many men get. A quarter of respondents to the NUT survey stressed the importance of other teachers, or members of senior management, in supporting their aspirations for promotion. But it is women in particular that need this encouragement and motivation, says Ms Hutchings.

Last, of course, there is the spectre of sexism. Indeed, discrimination is the main reason why today there are still fewer women heads than in the 1920s. “Increasingly from the 20s local education authorities enforced a bar on married women and thousands of serving women teachers were sacked - with men coming back from the war there was concern about jobs for them,” says Ms Hutchings, “Once you’d eliminated married women from the workforce, women were less likely to rise to headship. Also, there was social concern about having ‘spinster heads’.” After WW2, the rise of co-education also led many schools to combine, with headships tending to go to men.

Although the days of overt discrimination seem to be over - with the number of female headships rising steadily since the 1970s - there are still question marks over some appointments.

While women are no longer asked at interview about their marital status and family plans, Dr Thornton says: “You do get a gender-balancing mythology that believes a female head must have a male deputy to cover boys’

discipline and achievement. Schools see it as balancing, but in fact it discriminates against women who are the majority in the profession. Lay and business governors play an important role in appointments, but they don’t have to be trained in equal opportunities.”

Whether women make it to the top is not simply a matter of fairness and gender politics. Schools are desperately short of good leaders, says Colette Singleton, and they need to actively encourage a much larger proportion of people in the profession to aim for headship.

“We’ve got to stress the importance of actively encouraging women to go into these positions, particularly as there is a need for highly effective role models for girls in schools.

“At the moment they’re just exposed to men in senior leadership positions, and what view does that give them? It’s the same for the boys - they just assume the leadership positions are going to be theirs,” she said.

But Ms Hutchings has some grounds for optimism: “The rise in women heads over the past six years is largely due to the proportion of women in the profession going up - with more women teachers more women are likely to go through to headship. There has also been an increasing realisation that women can achieve headship, and seeing others succeed is encouraging more women to have a go.”

DOMINANT MALES?

In 1927 women comprised 57 per cent of all headteachers; by 1959, for the first time there were fewer female than male heads of schools, and by 1976 the proportion of women heads was just 36.8 per cent. Since then it has gradually increased - by 1999, 53.1 per cent of all headteachers in England and Wales were women.

In primaries female headteacher numbers have risen. In 1976 42.9 per cent of heads were female; in 1999, that had risen to 58.5 per cent. In 2000-2001, 71 per cent of those appointed to primary headships were women.

The proportion of female deputy heads is also higher, rising from 69.4 per cent in 1995 to 72.8 per cent in 1999. Headteachers of nursery, infant and first schools are more likely to be female - it is in junior, primary and middle schools that a disproportionate number of men make it to the top.

At secondary level, 17.8 per cent of heads were female in 1976, rising to 27.8 per cent by 1999. Women are also less likely to lead large schools. In 2000-2001, 85 per cent of heads of the largest schools were men.

Figures from the Institute for Public Policy Research report “Towards a Representative Teaching Profession: Gender” by Merryn Hutchings, March 2002