Female Hegemony among Italian Educational Professionals

The article deals with the gender imbalance among educational professionals in Italy, an imbalance which brings about an almost exclusive presence of women as teachers, educators, personal assistants and other professionals in care jobs, to the detriment of men. Given the statistics on educational occupations and university recruitment (more than 90% female), this imbalance is so marked as to point to a process of female supremacy. We maintain that not only do men avoid educational jobs because they adhere to the stereotype of “women’s work”, but also that young males are reluctant to enter these professions because of the domination of women. An exploratory study on a sample of Italian student teachers, student educators and in-service educators and primary school teachers (12 women and 12 men) surveys their awareness of this gender imbalance and their opinions on the causes and consequences of female dominance. The results somewhat confirm was presumed: the majority of interviewees minimize the gender imbalance and its consequences for pupils and for the profession itself; men are more sensitive than women to the issue and sometimes they feel dominated by the female hegemony; there are women who explicitly claim that educating or teaching must be occupied by women only.