Women Teachers’ Emotional Commitment and Involvement: A Universal Professional Feature and Educational Policy

Teaching has long been conceived of as a low-commitment occupation (Lortie, 1975), partially due to the feminization of its human resources. Women employees, it is assumed in many societies, are traditionally responsible for their families and children, and therefore are likely to invest less effort and time in their work as compared to men (Becker, 1985). When it comes to women teachers’ career choices, favorable working conditions, flexible and low-stress working hours, and the possibility of family life in parallel were indicated as widespread motives for teaching among women (Lortie, 1975; Huberman, 1993). Consequently, women teachers in general could be perceived as less involved in, and less committed to, their work in terms of long working hours and the centrality of work life (Johnson, 1990).