1、ELIZABETH D.STEINER,ASHLEY WOO,SY DOANTo Make Teaching Sustainable,Help Teachers Balance Work and Personal DemandsFindings from the 2025 State of the American Teacher SurveyThere is a common perception that teaching,with its summer breaks and workdays ending midafternoon,is a family-friendly job tha

2、t supports work-life balance.Work-life balance refers to the idea that a person has adequate resources to meet the demands and obligations of both work and personal life.A mismatch between resources,such as paid time off,and work or personal demands can lead to stress,difficulty coping,mental health

3、 concerns,and poor performance of work and personal duties(Voydanoff,2005).In this report,we use the 2025 State of the American Teacher(SoT)survey to explore teach-ers perceptions of their work-life balance,personal and work factors that are plausible drivers of work-life balance,and relationships b

4、etween work-life balance and well-being.We compare teach-ers responses with those of similar working adults where possible to provide context for teachers responses.We focus on female teachers because they are three-quarters of the teaching workforce and because of the documented,worrying patterns i

5、n their reported job stress and burnout.Some inherent characteristics of teaching might make balancing professional and personal responsibilities challenging.Teachers contracted hours,the in-person nature of most teaching posi-tions,instructional time requirements,and limited planning time allow for

6、 minimal flexibility,leaving little time for teachers to address occasional personal matters during the workday(National Center for Education Statistics NCES,undated;NCES,2024;Lin,Parker and Horowitz,2024;Sheehy,2025).1 In addition,teaching,although rewarding,entails unique mental and emotional dema