Female teachers across the United States are significantly more likely to experience frequent job-related stress and burnout than male educators, according to new survey results.
The RAND study found a 22-point difference in stress levels and a 6-point difference in the degree of burnout — gender disparities that have held constant since at least 2021. Female teachers are also almost twice as likely as similarly educated women in other professions to report frequent stress.
These trends are worrying not just for teachers, but also for students, said Elizabeth Steiner, senior policy researcher at RAND and the lead author of the report.
“Teacher well-being is … really important because it is related to how well teachers are able to do their jobs, which is related to how well students learn,” she said.
“Having a teacher who is present and engaged and putting forth their full effort to help the students they teach could make a real difference,” Steiner added, “as opposed to a teacher who is less engaged or struggling with mental health, or poor well-being, or poor work-life balance.”
Steiner said she is particularly concerned about female teachers, especially because they make up about three-quarters of the workforce. A RAND report this fall will explore which factors may be driving the disproportionate levels of stress.
Overall, 62% of teachers surveyed reported frequent job-related stress this year, up 3 percentage points from last year but down from the record high of 78% in 2021. Still, they were almost twice as likely as similar working adults to report persistent stress. Teacher burnout levels dropped over the past year, from 60% to 53%, yet remain 14 points higher than levels reported by their non-educator peers.
Black teachers were more likely than their white peers to report burnout (59% versus 53%), symptoms of depression (25% versus 18%) and an intention to quit (28% versus 14%). Notably, they were less likely to report frequent job-related stress, a discrepancy that Steiner called “a puzzle.”
The findings, published June 24, come from the fifth annual State of the American Teacher Survey, which looks at well-being and retention for K-12 public school teachers. Researchers focused on sources of job-related stress, pay, hours worked and intention to leave. This year’s sample consisted of 1,419 teachers.
