Teaching as care: gendered role expectations and the expressive function of women teachers in Delhi’s private primary schools

This paper examines how gender roles are organised and experienced by women teaching at private primary schools in Delhi. Based on an analysis of qualitative data (interviews) collected from thirty-five female teachers from among low and mid-fee private schools, the article explores the idea of teaching as an extension of societal expectations of women's care work. Drawing on Talcott Parsons’ notion of the family serves as a social institution tasked with the socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities. He found two complimentary functions in this framework - the instrumental and expressive role, and using this model as a guiding principle, this paper explores how emotional labour, staffing at home, and professional marginalization intersect to impact upon the work of such teachers. The evidence is that women are socialized into doing this because it complies with the normal value system around gender, and locked into jobs which give them little space for autonomy or self-development. Some women succumb to those pressures in an effort to make work and family life; others challenge them, negotiating strategically or simply not capitulating to them. The study contributes to the expanded understanding of feminised labour in education and calls for a reconsideration of structural barriers that help maintain gender hierarchies in private education.