Excerpted by Mary Morison from “It’s Elementary: A Brief History of Public Elementary Teachers and Their Federa- tions.” Barbara Richter, ETFO, 2008.
E
ighty-one percent of
the mem-
bers of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) are women and, in many ways, the his- tory of women teachers reflects the
struggles of all Canadian women. Women in the paid workforce face challenges. They get pregnant. They do more work at home including child care and elder care. They are more vulnerable to violence and harassment at home and at work. And they are under- represented in positions of power – in board- rooms, legislatures, courtrooms, union gov- erning bodies and school boards. That was true 150 years ago and remains true today. Women have made up the majority of
elementary public school teachers since 1880, but their initial acceptance into teach- ing some 40 years earlier was the subject of controversy. In the 1840s, options for women who wanted or needed to work out- side the home were limited mainly to what were considered subordinate or nurturing roles – domestic service, factory work, nurs- ing. In 1865, Egerton Ryerson, an educator, politician and public education advocate in early Ontario, wrote that women were “best adapted to teach small children, having, as a general rule, most heart, most tender feel- ings, most assiduity, and, in the order of Providence, the qualities best suited for the care, instruction and government of infancy and childhood.” Since teachers of younger children were
paid less, boards could save money by hiring young women for primary classes while of- fering higher salaries to men teaching higher grades. When men married they received bo- nuses or promotions; when women married they were told to go home. Their limited time in the workforce meant women accrued few- er increments, exercised less influence and had fewer opportunities for advancement.
E ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 11
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