Joumal ofTaiwan Nonnal University Humanit>es& Social Sciences
2004, 49(1), 29-52
Career Choice ofFemale Junior High School Teachers and
Potential Administrators in Tainan City: Gender and Authority
Hui-Ju Lee
Wen-hui Anna Tang
Da-Wan High School Institute of Econom間，National Cheng-Kung University
Abstract
In 2002, sixty-four percent of all junior high school teachers in Taiwan were female,
and it is expected that this trend toward
“
feminization" of junior high facu1ties will continue to i ncrease, There is n 0 s ignificant d ifference i n t he“
rank" 0 f m ale a nd f emale t eachers.However, at all levels of junior high school administration males outnumber females, and female administrators tend to hold lower-level, traditionally female posts such as Director of Special Education, Director of the Office of Data and Records, and Director of the Office of Student Counseling. Thus while a woman entering the profession of junior high school teaching in Taiwan enjoys a certain “positive horizontal gender discrimination," one
attemptI月 toe nter the a dministrative level of a j unior h igh school suffers from negative vertical gender discrimination.
In this research project, female teachers and female administrators at junior high schools in Tainan were our subjects. Through the study of records, questionnaires and in-depth interviews, we analyzed the reasons these women chose
“
junior high school teacher" as their career, as well as the reasons they either did not choose or were not allowed to serve in administrative posts in junior high schools. The results of this investigation are as follows:The personal reasons for female teachers' career choice of junior high school teaching is largely a function of society's expectations of females. Furthermore, due to structural limitations-that is, the difficu1ty of attaining higher-level positions-female teachers have relatively little desire to seek administrative posts in junior high schools. The female teachers also tend to have a notion of their professional teaching career which differs from that of males, and which has to do with their affirmation of the intrinsic meaning and value of teaching rather than primarily with considerations of money, status and power.
Keywords: Horizontal and vertical gender discrimination, positive and negative gender discrimination, gender stereotypes, sexual division of labor
