School Teaching As A Feminine Profession: The Legitimization And Naturalization Discourses In Pakistani Context

Abstract

School teaching has long been associated with women. There has been an ideological link between women’s domestic role and their career as school teacher. Taking care of younger children in school is traditionally seen as an “extension of motherhood” and therefore considered a “natural” job for women. Keeping in view this firmly rooted global phenomenon, I focus to examine what ideology idealizes and legitimizes school teaching as the best career for women in Pakistan? The study is informed by social constructionist understanding of gender and therefore draws on feminist post-structuralist. Drawing on insights from feminist post-structuralist, I give particular consideration to the discourses embedded into school textbooks and the people who author and approve school knowledge. Employing qualitative methodology, I focus on two key questions: what ideology informs school textbooks? How do school textbooks legitimize school teaching as the only appropriate job for women? The study findings suggest that school textbooks in Pakistan have been used to naturalize and legitimize school teaching as the best career for women.