Abstract
Objective: This paper presents research on the early retirement of kindergarten teachers in France. We sought to understand the reasons for this in a context which the government is putting in place measures to lengthen people's working lives.
Methods: In order to examine the difficulties teachers experience at the end of their working lives, we conducted interviews focusing on job constraints, health problems, and the impact work has on the private sphere, with reference to the task system model put forward by Curie (2002).
Participants: Eight females in their fifties were interviewed.
Results: Despite their experience acquired over the years, the more teachers age, the greater the human cost of their job. Health problems increase, work-related fatigue worsens and they need more time to recover. The teachers are also more affected by work-related constraints. From this perspective, the menopause seems to aggravate work-related fatigue. The teachers' feeling of personal effectiveness declines with age, causing them to worry about the last few years of their working lives. This forces teachers to make more and more adjustments to both their jobs and their private lives and sometimes makes them cut their working hours and in extreme cases take early retirement.
Conclusions: The close links between the role of a female teacher and a mother contribute to premature exhaustion phenomena. Several areas for change are proposed.