Trends in the diversity of teachers in England

Teaching is a female dominated occupation across the OECD. While men have, historically, been overrepresented in senior positions, the school workforce in England is no different. The latest data shows that the school workforce is becoming even more female dominated. The proportion of men in secondary schools has fallen year on year since 2010 (to 37.1 per cent) and has stagnated in primary schools over the last five years (to 15.4 per cent). However, the proportion of men in the school workforce from a BME background (9.1 per cent) is gradually becoming more representative of the population (14 per cent). This means that the fall in the number of male teachers has been driven by white males. Indeed, the number of white male secondary school teachers has fallen by over 12,800 since 2010, a fall of 17 per cent. This is an important consideration in areas where there is a prevalence of underperforming white working-class boys