Male teachers are more than twice as likely to see themselves in a headteacher role in 10 years’ time compared with their female peers, a survey suggests.
When asked to imagine what education job they would be doing in an “ideal world” in 10 years’ time, 21 per cent of male primary school teachers said they would be a headteacher, versus 9 per cent of women.
On a slightly separate gender point, these are the findings on the TT weekly blog today. My mind is a bit blown by the headship differences pic.twitter.com/RbHH7eEOWj
- Laura McInerney (@miss_mcinerney) October 26, 2021
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The Teacher Tapp poll of more than 6,000 teachers shows that at secondary level the gender gap was more stark, with just 3 per cent of female teachers saying they would see themselves in a headteacher role, compared with 10 per cent of male teachers.
Getting more women into school leadership
Vivienne Porritt, strategic leader for Women Ed, a campaign group focused on female leadership in education, called the findings “very disappointing”.
Women make up most of the primary school workforce but are underrepresented in headship roles, while men are more likely to progress to their first leadership role within five years, she said.
She added that it would be positive for more men to work in the primary sector but also questioned “the support and development that women receive to encourage them to apply to headship”.
“We know that headship has been and continues to be hard throughout the pandemic, yet the return of Ofsted suggests it is business as usual,” Ms Porritt said.
“We need to celebrate the achievements of all of our headteachers, and for headship to be an attractive option we need to value the 74 per cent of women who lead our primary schools,” she added.
Only a small proportion of respondents said they could see themselves as a chief executive working across several schools - but for both primary and secondary teachers, double the proportion of men saw this as a possibility compared with women.
However, female teachers were more likely in the survey than men to say they could see themselves in a pastoral role.
In primary schools, 10 per cent of female teachers said they would like to be in a pastoral lead, compared with 5 per cent of male teachers. While in secondary schools, 8 per cent of female teachers opted for a pastoral lead role, compared with 5 per cent of men.
No female advisers for DfE ministers
The findings on the gender imbalance among aspirant headteachers come after the Department for Education has faced criticism for having only men in its team of ministerial advisers.
The debate was reignited yesterday when David Thomas, the co-founder of online classroom Oak National Academy and regional director of the Astrea Academy Trust, was appointed as a policy adviser to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi.
Ms Porritt said: “It is extremely disappointing that the education ministers and those who directly advise them are all men.
“Women are the significant majority of the education workforce and this lack of diversity in the top education team suggests a disdain for the importance of gender balance at the least and gender equity preferably.”
A DfE spokesperson: “We want teaching to be an inclusive profession, with equal opportunity for all, and it’s vital that we attract, retain and develop talented teachers and school leaders who represent the communities they serve.
“We made diversity a feature of our Recruitment and Retention Strategy and are investing in programmes that support all teachers to develop and progress their careers.”
