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Seniors account for 30% of teaching staff in primary and secondary education in France. This figure is a cause for some concern given that all the research led on late careers in this occupational sector shows that teachers find it difficult to reach retirement age, reflected in physical health, mental and recovery problems having an impact both on their occupational activity and personal life. This process of fragilization appears to be more significant among women, owing to the difficulties involved in balancing their work and family life throughout their careers. The lack of medical monitoring of teachers makes it difficult to objectivise this phenomenon.This article reviews the measures proposed by the French education ministry to support teachers in late careers, including welcome and counselling spaces for staff, the medical monitoring of seniors, and individual interviews after 20 years in the profession to assess their situation and goals in terms of occupational mobility. We will show that these initiatives, only the first of which has actually been implemented, mainly concern secondary education and do not address the occupational difficulties encountered by all teachers, who are faced with increasingly difficult working conditions and a plethora of organisational reforms and programmes that wear individuals down and erode meaning. It points the way to more fundamental thinking on the possible realistic and bearable working conditions over time and according to gender.