Interviewer: I recently read an article which said that in primary schools in particular chances of promotion of women teachers are less than men, that men generally get promoted far quicker than women in primary education. Is this something you've noticed or is this something you feel?
Mary: No, this is something that is so. And we come back full circle really because it's not just teaching. I mean it's everything that men are getting promotion more quickly than women. In the primary sector there are far more women teachers than men but there are more headmasters than headmistresses.
Interviewer: So where does that leave someone like you? I mean what, what are the possibilities of your promotion in primary education? At the moment you're in charge of a section of the school.
Mary: Yes I'm I'm in charge of the infant department which goes from the children who are three to the children who are seven. And they transfer when they are seven to higher up the school which is called the junior department. So I'm I'm in charge of the Lower School if you like.
Interviewer: And and d'you have ambition in that sense? I mean would you like to be a headmistress? Mary: No no no I would not. I would not like to be a headmistress at all. I mean this is the next stage of my career were I ambitious um but I basically enjoy being a classroom teacher. Now perhaps this gives a clue to why there are not more women heads. I don't know I mean in the past it may have been that, and it may still be, that because boys are brought up to be more ambitious, that they're the ones who are going for promotion and quick promotion, I mean rapid promotion so that they are heads by the time they're thirty and they start out in their career thinking that whereas I enjoy being a class teacher and um - I was a deputy head before I got this post but I I prefer to be in the classroom with the children than sitting at a desk doing administration which is what being a head means if you're a head of a largish school. Interviewer: Are you pleased that you chose primary teaching as a career and and if if someone came up to you at school leaving age and was was wondering about what they were going to do would you advise them to follow in your footsteps?
Mary: I'm very pleased that I did - well I'm pleased most of the time. Monday mornings I'm not pleased some mornings during the week and the end of the holidays I'm not pleased I'm a primary teacher at all but I mean basically I am cos I left teaching once and then went back into it so I think that shows that I am committed to be a primary teacher.