Celebrating women in education
A closer look at female teachers and school leaders
Recently, while chatting with colleagues about movies that stayed with us long past the closing credits, someone brought up the Queen of Katwe. I watched it the same day and was struck by the heartwarming story of a young chess prodigy, Phiona, facing poverty, lack of networks, and gender stereotypes that she overcame with the support of her teacher. This story really resonated with me, as it’s the outcome my team and I are chasing with our research. Only, we want all boys and girls in Phiona’s class to have access to opportunities without the systemic obstacles she faced.
Despite encouraging improvements in primary and secondary education access and completion for all children – especially for girls – too many children still struggle to learn and enroll in school. Girls are particularly vulnerable. For many girls, going to school is more than just an opportunity to learn – education can lead to financial security, staying healthy and safe, and acquiring the skills, knowledge, and confidence to overcome the cycle of poverty.
Female teachers and school leaders are role models and allies for girls
Beyond learning mathematics or science, teachers and school leaders help develop valuable socio-emotional skills, raise students’ aspirations for themselves and parents’ aspirations for their children, and serve as mentors and role models.
“My fourth-grade teacher was the first one I can remember to speak to me directly, and not just to my parents, at the end-of-year report card meeting. She advised me on the importance of working hard and not taking intelligence for granted. I only vaguely remember what she said, but I remember feeling seen. It meant a lot and was a great introduction to finding a growth mindset!”
Female peers, teachers, and school leaders are important mentors for girls as they navigate life. This is particularly true in patriarchal contexts with limited female participation in the public sphere. In such contexts, female teachers and school leaders can challenge harmful gender stereotypes rooted in the community, bolster parents’ aspirations for girls, and help close the gender gap in educational achievement.
Phiona’s story from Queen of Katwe had a similarly empowering effect on Ugandan secondary school students. When students watched the movie immediately before an exam, their performance improved, especially for girls. Similar results have been seen in other contexts.
Yet, in many parts of the world, women remain underrepresented and under-supported in teaching and leadership roles.
Around the world, most teachers in lower grades are women, but children see fewer female teachers as they move up from pre-primary to tertiary education
Of the 86.7 million teachers in pre-primary through secondary education worldwide, 67 percent are women. Women's representation in teaching varies widely – from 81 percent in Central and Eastern Europe to 44 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. As students advance in their education, they encounter fewer female teachers, a pattern observed globally (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Share of female teachers in 2022i
“I was aware that only one of my science teachers and none of my math teachers were women (compared to only about 8 male teachers in the math department and about 12 in the science department). For my female friends, this was particularly dispiriting, and we sometimes talked about their sense of not belonging, which my male friends and I did not feel... I am sure that the lack of female physics teachers discouraged girls from taking this subject.”
In Latin America, where I grew up, most of my teachers were female until university. But that's not the case everywhere. Our research shows that in Africa, many girls go to school without a female teacher or headteacher.
Female representation also varies within countries, with more women in urban schools for unsurprising reasons
Even in countries with balanced numbers of female and male teachers, female teacher presence in districts and regions often differs. We find that in Zambia, Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire, Botswana, Lesotho, Niger, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and Angola, female teachers are unevenly distributed. Zooming in on Madagascar (Figure 2, right panel), a quarter of districts have schools with fewer than 41 per cent female teachers, with some as low as 23 per cent. Conversely, a quarter have more than 58 per cent and up to 89 per cent female teachers.
Most female teachers are likely to be in urban schools. In Zambia, for example, the average urban school has 78 per cent female teachers, compared with 37 per cent in rural schools. This is unsurprising. Conditions can be challenging in more rural parts of the country — with poor transportation, few options for basic services, and security challenges. For women with families, being close to childcare and jobs for their husbands is important. These reasons and more mean that women prefer to be in urban schools.
Figure 2: Share of female teachers in primary schools in selected countries of the "Teachers for All (T4A)" initiative ii
(national average: 58 per cent)
(national average: 47 per cent)
Women are underrepresented as school leaders
In many parts of the world teachers are promoted to become school leaders, so fewer female teachers mean fewer female school leaders. But there is more to the story. Even in countries where women are well represented as teachers, they face barriers to move into leadership roles (Figure 3). This trend is global, and is seen in West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia (UNICEF Innocenti, forthcoming), Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF Innocenti and UNESCO-IIEP, forthcoming), and high-income contexts.
Why don’t we see more women as school leaders? These women have to navigate a labyrinth of challenges to become leaders. Many structural, cultural, and normative barriers stand in their way.
Figure 3: Share of female teachers and school leaders in primary schools in selected countries iii
Women lead differently, and female led schools often outperform their male counterparts
Having more women in leadership can empower young girls and help improve student wellbeing and learning. Much of the recent research we read also shows that women practice more collaborative leadership, are better instructional leaders, and prioritize student wellbeing.
Our Time to Teach research showed that female leaders in West and Central Africa tended to adopt various effective practices to create a positive teaching and learning environment, reduce teacher absenteeism, and increase teacher and parent engagement with students.
Early evidence from UNICEF Innocenti and UNESCO-IIEP also shows that female-led schools perform as well as or better than their male counterparts on a variety of outcomes, including learning, promotion, and dropout rates.
“My mother did not support pursuing higher education; she believed it could impede both job prospects and marriage plans. However, my mathematics and language teachers visited my mom and talked to her many times, eventually convincing her that the vocational path was not the only option and that I could pursue higher education instead. My language teacher even accompanied me on the day of my university entrance exams. I'm very grateful for her support, which ultimately changed my life changed my life path for the better.”
Harnessing more local and contextual evidence can be a game-changer to support women in teaching and school leadership
The stark reality is, that there is a shortage of female teachers at higher education levels, particularly in rural and challenging areas. What's more, women are poorly represented as school leaders globally. Here, local, and contextual data is critical for identifying and tracking gender disparities – a first step towards addressing the issue. Regular analysis of administrative datasets, which most countries already produce, can help.
We can do even more. Contextual evidence on the challenges that women face in the education system can also help improve existing policies. Further, primary research to understand the effective practices used by female teachers and school leaders can provide a blueprint for strengthening leadership.
On this International Women’s Day, as I reflect on the wins and challenges of girls and women in education, I also see that promoting gender equality and fostering inclusion must remain a priority. Through our research, we have the unique opportunity to amplify girls’ and women’s voices so that, like Phiona, they can live out their dreams.
Bonus reading
The Teachers for All (T4A) research initiative is working with Ministries of Education, UNICEF regional and country offices to improve teacher deployment in: Angola, Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Zambia.
The Women in Learning Leadership (WiLL) initiative seeks to document the state of female representation in school leadership, identify the barriers they encounter, and explore the leadership and management practices they adopt to run their schools effectively. WiLL is producing both country-level and regional evidence.
The designations employed in the maps included above do not imply on the part of UNICEF the expression of any opinion whatsoever concerning the legal status of any country or territory, or of its authorities or the delimitations of its frontiers.
Author
Ximena Játiva is an education researcher at UNICEF Innocenti, working on the research portfolio on teachers and female school leaders.
Sources
i Figure 1: UNESCO UIS database
ii Figure 2: Authors' calculations based on 2020-2021 EMIS data for Madagascar and 2019-2020 for Zambia, available in Kabir, M. (2023) Teachers for All in Zambia; Gouëdard, P. (2023) Teachers for All in Madagascar.
iii Figure 3: Calculations based on EMIS data 2020-2021 (Chad, Niger, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire , Zambia, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Togo), 2021-2022 (Senegal, Benin)
