I don't know how to iron. I don't own an iron, other than a set of golf clubs which I also don't know how to use very well. My clothes handling method is to fold, or hang and tug. My mother ironed; my father didn't. Ironing is for girls.
But I teach, as did my father. That's women's work too. Even now, teaching is overwhelmingly dominated by women. What's more, I seem to remember reading that in secondary school only home ec has a greater proportion of female teachers than than English does, and most of the home ec programs have disappeared. The motherly types are English teachers now.
In my career, my methods courses for prospective English teachers have been at least two to one female in every instance but two. My current course has one man among nine women.
Why?
I think it's because preK-12 teaching, done well, demands the best of our nature, and that best is identified as characteristic of women: caring, intuition, selfless service. Mothering. Teaching done well with children of those ages is like mothering--especially in Home Ec and English. Men can do these things, but tend to go where the other things we think of when we think of men are more likely to be honored. The man on the street isn't likely to think of men when he thinks of someone teaching kids about putting their hearts into poems.
When I taught high school English my best friend on the faculty was the Home Ec teacher. She went on to become a counselor, after which she had a breakdown and left the field. Too much caring. Too much service. Collapse.
In this I think she was an anomaly. I tend to think of women as exemplars of survival. They've had to be such in a man's world; they've had to be such as the primary carriers of the burden of this terrible and wonderful profession. Teaching is hard.
I admired her example and I fear her example. She is or was the model of a beautiful new teacher radiating love. I want to be that, though "new" is long since impossible and "beautiful" would have to be confined to special moments of unusual classroom electricity. She is also the model of the teacher who crashes. When I reach exhaustion or approach it, I think of her and get careful about how much more I agree to take on.
Even the best teachers have to survive in order to do the good work. The need to survive is not gender specific. I probably will not bother to take on learning to iron, but in another kind of women's work, teaching, I will take important lessons from a loved and loving woman who left.
But I teach, as did my father. That's women's work too. Even now, teaching is overwhelmingly dominated by women. What's more, I seem to remember reading that in secondary school only home ec has a greater proportion of female teachers than than English does, and most of the home ec programs have disappeared. The motherly types are English teachers now.
In my career, my methods courses for prospective English teachers have been at least two to one female in every instance but two. My current course has one man among nine women.
Why?
I think it's because preK-12 teaching, done well, demands the best of our nature, and that best is identified as characteristic of women: caring, intuition, selfless service. Mothering. Teaching done well with children of those ages is like mothering--especially in Home Ec and English. Men can do these things, but tend to go where the other things we think of when we think of men are more likely to be honored. The man on the street isn't likely to think of men when he thinks of someone teaching kids about putting their hearts into poems.
When I taught high school English my best friend on the faculty was the Home Ec teacher. She went on to become a counselor, after which she had a breakdown and left the field. Too much caring. Too much service. Collapse.
In this I think she was an anomaly. I tend to think of women as exemplars of survival. They've had to be such in a man's world; they've had to be such as the primary carriers of the burden of this terrible and wonderful profession. Teaching is hard.
I admired her example and I fear her example. She is or was the model of a beautiful new teacher radiating love. I want to be that, though "new" is long since impossible and "beautiful" would have to be confined to special moments of unusual classroom electricity. She is also the model of the teacher who crashes. When I reach exhaustion or approach it, I think of her and get careful about how much more I agree to take on.
Even the best teachers have to survive in order to do the good work. The need to survive is not gender specific. I probably will not bother to take on learning to iron, but in another kind of women's work, teaching, I will take important lessons from a loved and loving woman who left.
1 Comments:
Interesting...Ironing. I wrote out how to iron a shirt once; 6 pages later, and I still forgot things. I know the mechanics of ironing, but my husband is a better ironer. Back to point...
Women were given the job as teachers so that men could go out and do the important work -- government. And look how well they've done! Perhaps women are more suited for teaching for the reasons you state. But I do know men who can be intuitive and nurturing. Unfornately society will not allow men to be such things and, therefore, they do not hold the same jobs as women.
I think you should learn to iron, the intuitive, nurturing guy that you are.
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