Why There Are More Female Teachers Than Male

Sources: NCES, Education Week, UNESCO and the Economic Policy Institute.

Picture an elementary school classroom and most people picture a woman at the front of it. That picture is accurate. Women outnumber men in almost every school system in the world, and the gap grows the younger the students are. It shrinks in high school, and at universities it flips.

The imbalance is well documented. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 77% of US public school teachers were female in 2020-21, against 23% male. Only 11% of teachers at the elementary level were men, compared with 36% at the secondary level. With the youngest children the gap is wider still: men made up just 3% of pre-K and kindergarten teachers and 20% of teachers in grades 1 to 8 between 2018 and 2022, according to an analysis by the Male Educator Network and Policy Institute (MEN Institute) reported by Education Week.

None of this happened by accident. History, money and expectations about who looks after children all pushed in the same direction, and most of them still do.

Why Teaching Is Female Dominated

Teaching is a respected job, but in most parts of the world it is a profession dominated by women. These are the main reasons, starting with the history that set the pattern.

Limited Options In The Past

Teaching was not always a woman’s job. It used to be a male-dominated field, and girls had far less access to formal education than boys. Colleges did not admit women at all until the mid-19th century, so most women had no route to the training a teacher needed. So many women became teachers between 1850 and 1900 that, by the 20th century, teaching had become a women’s field, helped along by reformers such as Catharine Beecher who argued women were best suited to it.

That changed when colleges began enrolling women in the mid-19th century, just as public schooling was spreading and creating a huge demand for teachers. At the same time, industrialization was pulling men into business, manufacturing and other better-paid work. Women were widely seen as more nurturing than men, so they were treated as the ideal candidates to fill the need, and colleges steered their female students into teacher training.

For many women, teaching was also one of the few respectable paid jobs open to them. It offered a measure of economic independence at a time when most careers were closed. Women have outnumbered men in American classrooms for more than a century, and teaching younger children in particular came to be seen as women’s work.

The pattern held even as other doors opened. Until Title IX passed in 1972, colleges could legally keep women out of many degree programs, which kept steering them toward education. In 2014, women still earned 80% of bachelor’s degrees in education.

Culture

Many cultures still treat caring for young children as women’s work. Teaching small children was seen as a natural extension of that role, and the idea has outlived the reasons it started. It shows most clearly in preschool and the early grades, where the work is hands-on care as well as instruction.

The flip side is an assumption that men lack the patience for young children. Boys are rarely encouraged toward early childhood work, while girls often are, so the imbalance starts long before anyone applies for a teaching job.

Underpaid

Teachers in most countries earn less than other workers with the same level of education, and the gap is large. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that US public school teachers earned 26.6% less in weekly wages than comparable college graduates in 2023.

That penalty is much bigger for men. EPI puts it at 36.3% for male teachers in 2023, compared with 21.4% for female teachers, because men with degrees tend to earn more in other fields than women do. A man who chooses teaching is giving up more money, relative to his other options, than a woman with the same degree. Advocates for male teachers name pay as an issue that can affect men disproportionately, and our page on why teachers should get paid more covers the wider pay debate.

Flexible Schedule

Teaching is demanding, and much of the work happens after hours. Still, the school calendar has real advantages for parents: the working day lines up with children’s school hours, and long breaks fall at the same time as school vacations.

For people who carry most of the childcare at home, still more often women, that fit can matter more than salary. It is one reason teaching has long appealed to women balancing work and family.

Stigma And Fear Of Suspicion

Some men, especially those who want to teach young children, say they feel watched more closely than their female colleagues. In the MEN Institute’s research reported by Education Week, men in the lower grades said being a male teacher with younger students felt stigmatized.

Any teacher’s career can be damaged by an accusation, true or not, and that worry weighs on anyone considering the job. Clear school rules on supervision, such as keeping doors open and avoiding one-on-one time out of sight, protect students and teachers of every gender. Our guide on whether teachers can be alone with students explains how those rules work.

For men who feel that stigma, one response is to teach older students instead, which is part of why men are far better represented in high schools than in elementary schools. Others leave teaching altogether.

Isolation adds to it. A man who is the only male teacher in his building has no one in a similar position to compare notes with, which is one reason groups such as the MEN Institute are building networks of male educators.

Society And Parental Preference

Many families still picture a woman when they think of a preschool or early-grades teacher, and some parents are more comfortable with one. Teaching is also rarely suggested to boys as a career. Curtis Valentine, founder of the MEN Institute, told Education Week that only about 1 in 3 parents would support their children going into teaching.

Limited Male Role Models

The imbalance feeds itself. A boy can go through elementary school without ever having a male teacher, and if he never sees a man doing the job, he is less likely to picture himself doing it. Fewer men enter the profession, so the next group of boys sees even fewer.

Not Seen As A “Manly” Profession

Teaching young children still carries a stereotype of being soft or unambitious work for a man, especially next to careers such as engineering, the trades or the military. The stereotype is weakest in high school subjects such as science, math and coaching, and strongest in the early grades.

Attitudes are shifting, and fewer people now see caring work as unmanly. That change has not yet shown up in the numbers, though: the male share of US teachers has kept falling.

How To Attract More Male Teachers

Raising the share of male teachers, especially in the early grades, is slow work. These are the approaches schools and advocates most often recommend.

Offer Financial Incentives

Pay is the factor that most clearly affects men’s career choices, so better salaries for all teachers would help. Raising pay only for men would be unfair and, in most places, illegal. Higher salaries, loan forgiveness and paid training routes into teaching for career changers all lower the cost of choosing the job.

Promote The Importance Of Male Teachers

Children benefit from seeing both men and women in caring and teaching roles. Some teacher groups, such as Australia’s Independent Education Union, argue that boys in particular benefit from seeing men in the classroom.

The evidence on whether students learn more from a teacher of their own gender is mixed, so claims that boys need male teachers to succeed go further than the research does. A varied staff does give children a wider range of role models, and our page on the disadvantages male teachers face looks at what the research shows in more detail.

Address Negative Stereotypes

Viewing men with suspicion simply because they want to work with children discourages good candidates, especially in the early grades. Supervision rules that apply equally to every teacher protect children without singling anyone out.

Recruitment programs aimed at career changers, veterans and men from the communities schools serve, along with mentoring networks once they are hired, are among the approaches advocates are now pushing. Keeping men in the job matters as much as hiring them.

What Percentage Of Teachers Are Male?

In the US, about 1 in 4 public school teachers is a man, and the share depends heavily on the age of the students. Here is how it breaks down.

The trend is moving the wrong way for anyone hoping to balance it. The male share of US teachers fell from about 30% in the 1980s to about 23% today, according to figures reported by Education Week.

Is It The Same In Other Countries?

Mostly, yes. UNESCO data show that worldwide, women make up 94% of pre-primary teachers, 68% of primary teachers, 58% at lower secondary and 52% at upper secondary. At universities the pattern reverses: women are 43% of the teaching staff.

The balance does vary by region. In 2022, women were about 75% of primary teachers in Central Asia, Europe and Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern and South-eastern Asia. The only region where women were a minority of primary teachers was sub-Saharan Africa, at 47%. Almost everywhere else the pattern holds: the younger the students, the more likely their teacher is a woman.

Men also leave sooner

Part of the gap comes from who stays. UNESCO reports that male teachers generally leave the profession at higher rates than women. In 2021, global attrition was 9.2% for male primary teachers against 4.2% for female primary teachers. Hiring more men does little if they leave within a few years, which is why advocates focus on support and pay as well as recruitment.

Does It Matter That Most Teachers Are Women?

Women are not worse or better teachers because of their gender, and children learn well from teachers of either sex. The concern is about range. A school workforce that is almost entirely female sends children a message about who does caring work, and it means many boys go through their early years without a man in a teaching role.

The imbalance also says something about how the job is valued. The pay gap with other graduates, the stigma some men describe, and the old idea that teaching young children is babysitting all come from the same place: a view of early education as care rather than skilled work. Stress is high for everyone in the job, too. RAND found that 59% of female teachers and 44% of male teachers reported frequent job-related stress in 2026.

• For students: a male teacher in the early grades is still unusual, and that tells you more about the job’s history than about men.
• For men thinking about teaching: secondary schools have the most men, while the early grades have the fewest, which is where groups like the MEN Institute focus their recruiting.
• For parents: the gender of a teacher tells you very little. Training, experience and how the classroom is run matter far more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of teachers are male?

About 23% of US public school teachers were men in 2020-21, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Men made up 11% of teachers at the elementary level and 36% at the secondary level.

What percent of elementary teachers are male?

Around 11% at the elementary level (NCES, 2020-21). The share is even lower with the youngest children: men were about 3% of pre-K and kindergarten teachers between 2018 and 2022, according to the MEN Institute.

Are most teachers women in every country?

In most of the world, yes, at the school level. UNESCO data show women make up 94% of pre-primary teachers and 68% of primary teachers worldwide, but only 43% of teachers at the university level.

Why do men leave teaching?

Pay is a big part of it. The Economic Policy Institute estimates male teachers earned 36.3% less in weekly wages than comparable male college graduates in 2023. Isolation as the only man on staff, and the stigma some men describe in the early grades, also play a role.

When did teaching become a female profession?

In the US it shifted during the 19th century, as public schooling expanded and colleges began admitting women and training them as teachers. Women have outnumbered men in American classrooms for more than a century.

Is the number of male teachers going up or down?

Down in the US. The male share of teachers fell from about 30% in the 1980s to about 23% now, according to figures reported by Education Week in 2026.

The Bottom Line

There are more female teachers than male because teaching was opened to women in the 19th century as a low-paid caring job, and the pay gap, cultural expectations and stigma that grew around it have kept men away, especially from young children. About 77% of US public school teachers are women today, and the male share has been falling, not rising. Better pay and support for all teachers is the change most likely to shift it.