In primary education, most of the nearly 111 thousand teachers (88 percent) are women. This has hardly changed since 2016. The share of men teaching has not increased despite initiatives to attract more men to the classroom.
Women are overrepresented in all job categories in primary education. The share of women in management and executive roles rose from 55 percent in 2016 to 68 percent in 2022.
In secondary education, the share of women grew in all job categories between 2016 and 2022. Women were overrepresented in teaching (56 percent), educational support (65 percent), and management and administrative roles (60 percent) in 2022.
Leadership positions are still more often held by men; in 2022, 42 percent were women, up from 33 percent in 2016.
Between 2016 and 2022, the number of educational support staff increased significantly. In primary education, this number more than doubled (125 percent), while in secondary education it also increased but less strongly (18 percent). This often involves young women and temporary contracts.
The growth is linked to additional funding from the Work Pressure Agreement (2018) and the National Education Program (2021), which helped schools reduce workload and address learning delays.
The average age of male teachers has decreased between 2016 and 2022. In 2022, male primary school teachers were on average slightly younger (41 years) than female teachers (43 years). In 2016, male primary school teachers were nearly two years older than their female colleagues. In both primary and secondary education, the share of women aged 60 and over has increased, while it has decreased among men. If this trend continues, the share of women in education will increase further.
In 2022, women teaching in primary schools earned nearly 3 percent more than men after adjusting for background characteristics. Women also earned slightly more than men in educational support roles (0.7 percent) and 4 percent more in management and administrative roles. However, men earned more than women in management and executive positions in primary education (nearly 2 percent).
Although salary differences between men and women have decreased, men in secondary education still earned more than women in management and executive positions (2.5 percent), teaching roles (2.3 percent), and management and administrative roles (5.4 percent) in 2022.
Only in educational support roles in secondary education have women started earning slightly more than men (0.9 percent).
