[maxawaytoolong]

Does it really make any difference? I grew up in an anachronistic small town and had at least 50% male teachers from 1st grade on up. I can't say I paid attention to any of my teachers, male or female. If anything, I thought the male teachers were much bigger idiots and losers than the female teachers. In no way did I view them as "role models."

[oiuhjyftgrdgh]

Suppose you are black kid in the inner city and none of your teachers are black, cos they might be criminals or a muslim kid and none of your teachers are brown (terrorists) - you might have some doubts about whether you can be a teacher or whether school is for you.

[flatline]

It could make a difference. If fewer women are interested in technical/scientific fields, and we have all or predominately female teachers, the education (and enthusiasm) in technical fields will be lacking. There's no reason that trend in gender interests cannot change but at the present there is an imbalance.

[axod]

I think a lot of it is subconsciously consumed. Also if you were lucky to have a good male role model at home - father/older siblings, then perhaps male teachers weren't important to you.

There's a lot of evidence to suggest that boys learn best when taught by men, and girls learn best when taught by women. Male and female brains are very different, and we think differently about problems.

So if your school has 80% women teachers, then the girls are going to do better on average than the boys in that school, which is concerning.