This article provides the first harmonized quantitative evidence on the rise of mass education across the provinces (today's NUTS 3) of Italy and Spain in the period c. 1861–1921. Visual analysis of this new dataset suggests that an important factor linked to the expansion of schooling was the feminization of the teaching profession, something that has been largely neglected so far in quantitative historical studies of educational development. This hypothesis is put to the test using panel-data models. The results show that the feminization of teaching went hand in hand with the rise of schooling rates by prompting more girls to enrol into primary education. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Italy's gross enrolment rate had surpassed that of Spain—partly as the result of increasing feminization within the primary-school teaching profession.

中文翻译：

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1861-1921 年意大利和西班牙的女教师和初等教育的兴起：来自新数据集的证据†

本文提供了第一个关于意大利和西班牙各省（今天的 NUTS 3）大众教育在c时期兴起的统一量化证据。. 1861-1921 年。对这个新数据集的直观分析表明，与学校教育扩张相关的一个重要因素是教师职业的女性化，这一点迄今为止在教育发展的定量历史研究中一直被忽视。使用面板数据模型对该假设进行了测试。结果表明，通过促使更多的女孩进入初等教育，教学的女性化与入学率的上升密切相关。到 20 世纪初，意大利的毛入学率已超过西班牙——部分原因是小学教师职业女性化程度不断提高。