Research Question:
The question I am endeavouring to answer in my research paper is: How did the gender demographic in the teaching profession change, primarily at the elementary level, as the education system developed in Canada between 1880 and 1950. What were the driving forces in the growing number of female teachers in the country, how did the social constructs surrounding gender impact the experience of women seeking careers in the field, and how did the environment, whether urban or rural, impact the experiences of female teachers?
Outline of Evidence:
- Intro
I will briefly introduce the concept of society being separated into two “spheres,” the public and the private, and how this impacted the lives of women for much of the nineteenth-century, carrying on into the twentieth-century. I will use information found in Janet Guildford’s article, “”Separate Spheres”: The Feminization of Public School Teaching in Nova Scotia, 1838-1880,” as well as class notes from History 2700, “History of Women in Canadian Society” to provide background information regarding the social expectations of women during this era, which includes, but is not limited to, the gender constructs that confined women to domestic life.
- Driving Forces: Higher Education, Industrialization, and Urbanization
In order to better understand the topic of the feminization of teaching, I am interested in exploring the different factors that contributed to the rapidly increasing number of female teachers at the turn of the twentieth century. I will refer to Eric W. Sager’s article, “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881–1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization’ of an Occupation,” which incorporates Canadian Census data to examine valuable statistics regarding the numbers female teachers, as well as their ages, race, and religious backgrounds, in specific areas. I will explore how the opportunities for women changed as they were allowed admission into universities beginning in 1884, which created controversy among many male faculty and students. I will incorporate evidence found in Sara Z. Burke’s article, “New Women and Old Romans: Co-education at the University of Toronto, 1884-1895,” which offers insight into how the admission of women into higher education challenged the strict gender ideologies of the time. In addition to the role of higher education, I am interested in the role of other factors such as urbanization and industrialization had on women pursuing careers in education. I will examine Marta Danylewycz, Beth Light, and Alison Prentice’s article, “The Evolution of the Sexual Division of Labour in Teaching: A Nineteenth-Century Ontario and Quebec Case Study,” to see how these factors affected both urban and rural communities.
- Social Constructs: The Experience of Early Female Teachers
Although it is impossible to authentically share the experience of all female teachers in Canada between 1880 and 1950, as each woman and her experience is unique, I am interested in exploring the general experiences of women in the profession of teaching and the challenges they faced prior to and upon entering the classroom. In this section of my research paper, I will look at Kari Dehli’s article, “They Rule by Sympathy: The Feminization of Pedagogy” in order to obtain a better understanding of why female teachers were more positively accepted in primary-level classrooms. I will also examine photographs of women from this era, which will offer insight into the conditions in which they taught, their class sizes and structure, as well as the ages of the teachers. I will examine how the experiences of women changed, or did not change, as the twentieth-century progressed. I will make use of Kristina R. Llewellyn’s book, Democracy’s Angels: The Work of Women Teachers, to gain insight into how women were received as educators, decades after women first entered the profession.
- Conclusion
I will conclude my research paper with a summary of the information I have gathered. I will restate my research questions and explain how it was answered through my paper.