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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1471015
Feminization of teaching: Gender and motivational factors of choosing teaching as a career
Provisionally accepted- Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
The feminization of the teaching profession is widely discussed internationally. In light of current debates on changes in the perception of gender diversity and roles, it is important to examine whether students’ motives for choosing the teaching profession vary by gender. To explore this, we assessed student teachers’ motives for choosing teaching as a career as well as their perception of future demands and abilities to cope with stress in Germany using an online tool. Female students showed higher pedagogical, altruistic, and idealistic motivations, while male students had higher subject-related motivation and more often chose teaching as a fallback career. Additionally, female students displayed greater openness to professional cooperation, interest in students' social and cultural diversity, and less avoidance of social support under stress. These results support theories that gender expectations influence perceptions of occupational gender fit.
Keywords: Career choice motives, student teachers, gender differences, cluster analyses, Feminization of teaching
Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kammermeier, Weiss and Kiel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Marina Kammermeier, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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