What a (Gendered) Profession! Patriarchy and Horizontal Segregation in Teaching: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This paper addresses the persistence of horizontal segregation in teaching staff, particularly in early childhood and primary education, where women remain predominant. After grasping the connections with the patriarchal culture that permeates every sphere of society and thematising the issue in terms of a crisis of desire, it focuses on the Italian context and presents an exploratory qualitative study involving final-year secondary school students from Lombardy, using critical incidents and low-structured focus groups. Conceived with transformative aims, it serves as a pilot study toward a research-as-guidance paradigm, intended to reframe the meaning of teaching in terms of aspiration, social role, and the deconstruction of gender stereotypes, thus promoting renewed interest in the profession among young people.