Education reforms are taking their toll on women teachers more than men because of the pressures they face in juggling longer working hours and family life, experts on education and gender studies claim.
Statistics compiled by the Education Department show that although there are more women than men in the teaching profession, women are still less likely to be promoted to higher levels.
The figures reveal that 63.5 per cent of secondary school teachers on assistant master grade last year were women. However, women on senior graduate master grade accounted for 41.4 per cent of the total. Just 30 per cent of school principals were women.
In the primary sector, the percentages of female teachers on assistant master and primary school master grades were 66.5 and 61.6 per cent respectively last year. But they become a minority at the principal level, holding 47.1 per cent of headships. The latter, though, is an improvement on figures from 1995, when just 25 per cent of primary principals were women.
Many teachers must now shoulder extra duties and work longer hours as competition between schools for students and resources intensifies, some academics on educational administration assert. In a society where females have greater responsibility for raising their children, many women teachers find it hard to cope with their dual roles.
Some educators attribute the glass ceiling in women teachers' career development to school heads' doubts about their female staff's commitment to their work. Others said many women chose not to assume senior posts in order to spend more time with their children.
Dr Anita Chan Kit-wa, a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong who has undertaken research on gender and education, said that the education reforms had changed the work culture in schools to one where women - particularly those who were married with children - were not favoured.
