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Globally, women are over-represented in the teaching force. And their numbers are rising: Since 2015, globally, the proportion of female teachers has increased across primary, lower, and upper secondary levels. In pre-primary education, women make up 94% of the teaching force.  But at higher levels of education, their numbers dwindle. Women make up 68% of the teaching force in primary, 58% at lower secondary, 52% at upper secondary and 43% at tertiary level.

In 2022, women represented 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 the minority of primary teachers was sub-Saharan Africa, where they comprised only 47% of the primary teaching force in 2022. 

Regional differences are more profound at tertiary level. Across nearly all regions, women were less than 45% of the tertiary teaching force. The only exceptions in 2022 were Central Asia and Europe and Northern America, where women represented 55% and 50%, respectively, of the teaching force. 

Teacher attrition is a major concern in building and sustaining a quality teaching workforce. Male teachers generally leave the profession at higher rates than their female colleagues. Global attrition rates in 2021 were 9.2% and 5.9% for male primary and lower secondary teachers, respectively, compared to 4.2% and 5.6% for female teachers. 

The causes of higher male attrition rates vary by region and by country, but are often linked to greater employment mobility among men than women. 

As the UNESCO-International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030  notes, teaching at lower levels of education is often considered a women’s profession due to cultural norms and gender bias regarding the responsibility of the education and care of children.

But increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce is a key to eradicating gender stereotypes in education and promote more equal pathways for all learners. It can also address labour shortages in the teaching profession: globally, 44 million additional teachers need to be recruited to meet universal primary and secondary education in 2030. 

“Teacher shortages result from the material and symbolic conditions in which teachers work.  Status, stable contracts and reasonable remuneration, trust, appreciation, a sense of fulfillment and autonomy, all play a role,” says Carlos Vargas, Head of Teachers at UNESCO.

91�鶹������Ʒ���� to encourage men to pursue a teaching career at early levels of education. This includes Germany’s Mehr Männer in Kitas (More men in day-care centres) programme, Sweden’s national campaign, and the Flemish Community of Belgium’s funding to encourage men, as part of underrepresented groups, to join the teaching profession. While these have made some progress, gender parity remains a distant goal. 

“Increasing diversity of the teaching workforce can play an important role in eradicating gender stereotypes in teaching staff and education more broadly. Among others, this entails encouraging men to pursue a teaching career in pre-primary and primary education,” says Justine Sass, Head of Inclusion and Gender Equality in Education at UNESCO. 

Efforts are also needed to ensure suitable housing, safe and sanitary working conditions, and discrimination due to views on women’s role in the workforce – which are common reasons for women to leave the teaching profession. The glass ceilings in management and leadership positions for women must also be shattered, including in senior faculty and decision-making bodies where women outnumber men as students, but not as teachers. 

But simply recruiting more female or male teachers will not automatically translate into gender equality in and through education. Teachers need training on gender-transformative pedagogies, enabling them to challenge rigid gender norms, and make learning environments inclusive and free of stereotypes.

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• Gender equality in education