The historical cause of the feminization of teaching is a fundamentally complex topic of research and discussion, as Eric Sager proves in his article “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901”. Sager argues that “we need to accept and to problematize ambiguity and paradox: an occupation that was exploitative and oppressive could also be self-affirming and empowering” and that “between structure and agency, between macro-historical context and individual subject, there is no fundamental opposition but a necessary complementarity.” (143) To prove his argument, Sager utilizes Canadian census statistics paired with primary sources of individual teachers, among various secondary sources, to offer answers “that move between the individual and the collective, between micro- and macro- levels of analysis” (143). Sager illuminates the juxtaposing relationship between empowerment and exploitation regarding women teaching: on one hand, women are paid less for the same work; on the other hand, teaching provided women with another opportunity than domestic services, an opportunity which allowed them to be intellectuals in a society that did not often, if ever, value this characteristic in women. While women were paid less as teachers for their work, they were paid more than women working in other services. At the crux of Sager’s argument, he maintains that the reason that women felt empowered by teaching and the fact that women were exploited in this work, are so closely interwoven that they do not and can not exist without the other. According to Sager, the occupation of teaching for women (whether they were exploited or empowered) is what led women to being able to call themselves professionals today.

The gendered expectations for boys and girls and how that was influenced by the historical causes of the feminization of teaching is explored in J. Donald Wilson’s article “British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer, 1928-1934”. Wilson uses primary sources from a welfare office in this article but does not provide a clear, defined, and outlined thesis.  In this article, Wilson describes the experiences of BC’s first teachers’ welfare officer, Lottie Bowron, who documented and reported her interactions with parents, teachers, and schoolboard members. The vocabulary and word choice in Bowron’s reports give a clear glance into the gendered expectations of not only students but of teachers. For example, in schools that had more problematic students and parents, it was often recommended that a man or an experienced female teacher ought to work there. This illustrates, not only for us viewing from the present, but for society at that time as well, that men were the authoritative figures who were to be listened to and held enough power to gain that control.