This dissertation examines three dimensions – gender, race, and salary -- of the national
teacher labor force that emerged in the post-World War II period. First, teaching became
increasingly feminized; it became a stable occupation for college-educated women because with
the lift of the marriage bar, women were allowed to work after marriage and having children. In
regards to the racial and ethnic composition of the national teacher labor force, the whitening of
the Southern teacher labor force in the post-desegregation era converged to that of the rest of the
United States; the rate at which white teachers were hired as teachers was greater than that of
black teachers. Finally, examining the salary returns to the bachelor‘s in education degree in the
teacher and non-teacher labor markets the findings show that the bachelor‘s in education degree
has the greatest salary return in teaching. The standardization of teacher education resulting
from institutional isomorphism led to the regional convergence in the social characteristics of
American teachers. Therefore, this dissertation is an historical analysis of the homogenization in
the social characteristics of the American teacher labor force in the post-war era.