Korean Job Discussion Forums

[drydell]

Observation: 3 years ago, when I first came here, male teachers were so much more visibly numerous than female teachers... at a wild guess it was a ratio of 4/1....

Now in my area (Busan) the shift in this balance has changed around completely over the last 12 months in particular..and there are so many many female foreigners - so much that it seems now the ratio imbalance has swung around in the opposite direction and men are being nudged out of esl teaching in Korea.

I know it's an employers market right now and there is a preference for North American accents and women.....but no one else seems to have commented on this massive shift going on right now..

anyone got stats or personal evidence of this effecting them?

[crsandus]

Recently my coteacher handed me a document that contained the names of all the elementary school NETs in my district that had contracts ending in August. Out of the 41 or 42 names on the list, I counted 24 or so to be female names. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I remember it being over 50% female even with the unisex names.

I'm not sure if this is really overly helpful since the sample size is small and it's only for public school teachers in a specific district and teaching a specific level but I was somewhat surprised.

[isisaredead]

a "massive shift" based on anecdotal evidence? no, i don't have any stats - mainly because i think you're wrong.

you're talking about one city. it can hardly be applied to the entire country.

[drydell]

yep it's totally based on anecdotal observation..not in the least bit scientific but that's why i'm interested to know if there is any evidence that this has actually happened for real..

I would imagine that this is mostly happening at the hagwon level if anywhere..

[brento1138]

Purge? Personally, I'd call it an ever-increasing number of foreign teachers in Korea, many of who now just happen to be females. Come on, if you were here even five years ago, you'd have noticed the amount of foreigners must have gone up exponentially.

And I wouldn't really blame schools for being a bit wary of hiring male teachers. Statistically speaking, more could go wrong with a male teacher than a female teacher. I don't have those stats on hand, but I think it's common sense. I'd love it if there was some way we could do a study of number of male teachers who FFFF up bigtime and number of female teachers who do. I think when we tend to think of an abusive, alcoholic, law-breaking, drug-abusing, opposite-sex-groping teacher, we tend to think of a male waaay before a female. And probably for good reason...

Anyhow... in conclusion, I say GOOD! We should have a 50/50 ratio.

Welcome, females!

[drydell]

yeah you might have noticed i wasn't really saying it was a good or bad thing..

purge is meant light-heartedly.. (given it usually implies ethnic cleansing/massacres etc)

[bcjinseoul]

Hard to disagree with the OP. I've been in Korea for four years and at four different cities, and yes, there has been quite the surge of teachers, including female, within the last half decade.

I know a guy in Busan who's in his late 30's, and has been here more than ten years, and can't get a job to save his life (in Busan). Think he might have left the local school district on bad terms, he doesn't have an MA so no college in Busan (or Seoul) will talk to him, and no way is any hogwon going to hire him now...not when there are tons of 22, 23 and 24 year old applicants straight out of college coming here in flocks and droves. And that's what EPIK, SMOE and most hogwons want these days. Under 25, North American, and white. And female. Older veteran teachers with no quals are getting left behind these days, and it ain't right.

A friend of mine applied to more than 40 recruiters a while back, after some experience in Korea, and only a little more than ten got back to him. I applied to almost every recruiter on elscafe.com in the middle of my contract since I wanted to break it at the time (maybe 70?), and only about 15 or so got back to me, and most of them wanted to sell me really really bad hogwons only a newbie should have to take. These recruiters are holding out for young north american women, just like most of the hogwons and public school these days.

[WTP Trust]

[Zulethe]

[.38 Special]

This ain't right! The He-Man Woman Haters club won't stand for this!

[bcjinseoul]

[SeoulSister08]

I don't know about other schools, but when I interviewed for my job I was told that the school preferred to hire a man but would choose the most qualified applicant regardless of gender.

[Underwaterbob]

[Unposter]

38 Special,

How old are you to be quoting the Little Rascals?

[.38 Special]