Reformers in the education field, like teacher Horace Mann of Massachusetts, rallied in the late 1830s for reform in public schools, also known as "common schools" in the U.S. While most of that reform dealt with improving education and setting minimum standards to which all schools would have to adhere, a side effect was that there was an immediate need for more teachers. At that time, most teachers were male. However, a teacher shortage due to the increase in the number of schools meant that women would be called upon to enter the workforce as teachers.
Brown University researchers have looked at how diversity enhances organizational effectiveness through higher levels of creativity and innovation, better problem-solving abilities and greater organizational flexibility. Brown researchers noted that similar benefits would also apply to students, teachers and schools. Minority women are highly underrepresented as teachers in public school, the majority race being white women, which is disproportionate to the diversity makeup of the student body in many schools. This may be due in part to lack of focused recruitment, retainment and preparation of minority women in the teaching field.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has noted that women teachers in countries outside the U.S. have a great impact on the education of young girls and the rates of their enrollment in schools. UNESCO has found that in countries where male teachers outnumber female ones, the enrollment of male students outnumbers that of female students. This may have to do with cultural expectations, such as young girls not being allowed to be taught by men, or because women teachers aren't available to advocate for the rights of young girls.
Researchers in the Advancing Women in Leadership Journal said that although it would seem that women teachers have a much greater advocacy for their gender when female principals are in office, this is not the case. It is often difficult for a women to rise through the ranks in a school because of sabotage by or a lack of support from other women teachers. Equality for the promotion of women in public schools remains an ongoing issues.