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143
Breakdowns.

The interesting point emerges that while women break down more frequently
than men, the deaths among the male teachers as compared with women are relatively
more numerous in the proportion of 167 to 100. Put in another way, the
yearly averages show:—
Men teachers. Women teachers.
Deaths 1 in 244 1 in 317
Breakdowns 1 in 525 1 in 194
From these figures, it appears that roughly speaking, a woman is about twice
as likely to retire prematurely as a man, but only one-third as likely to die during
her service.
Three main reasons suggest themselves for this discrepancy between the
sexes:—
(1) That the man has family obligations, and cannot afford to retire unless
he must. This is not to suggest that women teachers take breakdown pensions
unneces arily, but rather that many men have to struggle on when their health
would indicate retirement.
(2) That women tend to age earlier than men. It is rather to a general
failure of health than to a tendency to a physiological crisis in the later forties,
that the difference in the total figures can be attributed. So far as breakdowns
are concerned, the number rises steadily with every quinquennium
after 40, and is highest between 55 and 60. A certain number of cases is
directly attributable to the menopause, but in the majority, menopausal
symptoms, if present, have probably no causal influence on the general state.
The group classified as general debility, for example, showed a physical "breakup
"usual in old age, but occurring in these women (who had in the main worked
exceptionally hard) in middle life.
(3) The fact that certain organic diseases or defects interfering markedly
with a teacher's career, are much more common in women than in men. For
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