Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Yoriko Meguro
Professor of Sociology, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
Representative of Japan to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
Prepared for the UNESCO Regional Seminar: "Towards the Gender Equality in Basic
Education: Major Challenges to Meet Dakar EFA Goals", 2830 November 2001, Kyoto,
Japan
1. Introduction
The world community has been striving for the achievement of gender equality in education
with the understanding that the deprivation of women's right to education is persistent
world wide and it is highly linked with the deprivation of their right to the full
development of their potential. At the end of the 20th Century, it was reviewed that "the
gender gap in education had been closing but persistent" (The World's Women 2000: Trends
and Statistics). Access to education has been a major issue for the countries where gender
gaps in school enrolment and literacy rates are high, but the content and quality of
education to reflect social, and cultural norms of gender stereotypes are the globally shared
critical issues. The present paper intends to review the progress made in education for
women and girls in Japan and to identify challenges in the elimination of gender gaps in
education and for the achievement of gender equality in Japan.
2. Education for Women as a National Investment
When the modern school system started in 1872, the primary education was made
compulsory for both boys and girls. The enrolment rate for girls reached the same level as
that for boys at the turn of the century, though it was lower at the beginning. For Japan's
development as a modern nation, education was considered an important investment for
building the human capital. The importance of education for women and girls was
emphasized. It was, however, based on the idea that women should be educated to become
'wise mothers' to raise good citizens who would place the primary value on the national and
societal interests over the individual interests. There was an assumption that women should
contribute to Japan's nation building as 'mothers'. Education for women was encouraged
primarily from the standpoint of women's role as the educator of the next generation.
3. Rising Level of Education
With the introduction of the new Constitution in 1946 and the Fundamental Law of
Education that followed, the equal opportunity for education for boys and girls at all levels
was legally promised and coeducational school system was disseminated throughout Japan.
The enrolment rates for both boys and girls on the level of primary education (elementary
and junior high/secondary schools) became almost 100% as early as in the 1940s. The
enrolment rate for girls on the level of secondary education (senior high schools) started
lower than that for boys but increased rapidly in the 1960s and exceeded the rate for boys in
1969 to sustain the trend till today. The enrolment pattern in higher education has been
gender discriminatory. The enrolment rates for both boys and girls increased drastically in
the late 1960s and early 1970s to reach the levels of 40% for boys and over 30% for girls,
but nearly twothirds of the girls were enrolled in junior colleges where the principle of
women' s education was in line with the preworldwarII ideology. It was only in the late
1990s, that girls' enrolment in the 4year universities increased considerably to reach the
point of 31.5% in the year 2000 in comparison with 47.5% for boys while the girl’s
enrolment in junior colleges began to decrease.
4. Factors to Promote Education
Major pushing factors for promoting higher education in the formal school system were the
introduction and institutionalisation of the democratic ideology in the school system and in
society in general, and the economic growth which expanded the need for bettereducated
labour supply when the number of children per couple declined. In the process of rapid
urbanization and the growing middle class population, the social class distinction became
blurred and the equality of opportunity became seemingly an a priori. The ideology of
democracy and the economic affluence jointly worked to break a discouraging climate
towards women to receive a higher education. Also, Japanese parents were inclined to invest
in the future of their children through education at the expense of their own leisure in life.
Their expectation, however, was in accordance with the general social norm and tended to
be genderspecific: education for boys was considered a core resource and qualification for
their success as the breadwinner and the citizens in the public sphere while education for
girls was appreciated as an important qualification for their successful mateselection which
would determine their adult life style as the housewife in the private sphere. The notion of
education as an investment shifted from the standpoint of national development to that of
personal development but the route to personal development was gender differentiated.
5. Making Changes in Gender Stereotypes in Education
Gender stereotypes in education are the product of various factors such as the attitudes of
family members and the community, the mindset of the people in the school environment,
the opportunity structure of society particularly in education and occupation, and the gender
norm embedded in the reward and compensation system of a society.
The parents' expectations for their children's education has been growing and more parents
are expressing their desire for their daughters to have education on the university level than
ever before, and yet a considerable gender gap still exists (33% for girls and 65% for boys).
As for the fields of study in the universities, there has been a high concentration of female
students in humanities, social sciences and education, though social sciences are gaining
popularity while others have lost gradually. Again, we find a big gender gap in the
preference of the academic discipline. The slowing changing patterns of gender gaps in the
above two indicators reflect the normative gender stereotypes of our society that are directly
linked with the breadwinner housewife division of roles.
The proportion of female teachers in school is an' important indicator of equality in terms
of a role model for both male and female students and also of women's right to work. The
proportion of female teachers is the highest in primary schools (65% in 2000) but it
decreases as the level of education goes up. Female teachers in the managing positions are
on the rise but the gender gap is great.
One of the controversial issues on the substance of education was a gender differentiated
curriculum, the home m akin g/economics offered only for female students. Campaigns to
make both. girls and boys study this program were extensively organized by teachers
through the 1980s and 1990s. Since 1994, the same home economics program is offered to
both girls and boys. Reviewing the content of textbooks and writing textbooks to sensitise
students on gender equality have been another action carried out by different groups of
women. Translation of books and materials that are used for the promotion of education on
gender equality in other countries is a more recent activity carried out by NGOs. Since the
Education Board of the local government in some regions has the authority over the
selection of textbooks for adoption, sidereading materials are important tools for gender
sensitive individual teachers to rely on. Some public women's centres have produced
guiding manuals and brochures for education on gender equality in collaboration with
experts and NGOs.
6. Impact of the United Nations Conferences on Women
Ever since the First World Conference on Women of 1975, the government of Japan has
been committed to the cause for the advancement of women. The National Women's
Education Center was established in 1977 as a fruit of the joint effort between women's
groups and the government, and it developed their pillar programs on training, research and
information/communication for the advancement and empowerment of women. The Basic
Law on Gender Equal Society was finally promulgated and came into force in June 1999.
For its implementation, the Basic Plan for Gender Equal Society was decided upon by the
Cabinet in December 2000. The Plan specifies eleven areas of concern taking into account
the outcome of the Special Session of the United Nations: Women 2000, and states the
decadeterm basic plan and the 5yearterm specific plans and programs.
In regards to education, it emphasizes the importance of education for promoting gender
equality by eliminating the gender stereotypical image of roles and developing a gender
equal perception on the basis of a sense of respect for human rights. The specific plans
include a new course for learning, programs in nonformal education, gender training for
the staff in formal and nonformal education, and the enrichment of women's education and
learning activities towards women's empowerment.
International exchange and cooperation are also emphasized in the Basic Plan. The
government of Japan started in 1994 the program to establish Literacy Resource Centres for
Girls and Women in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific Region (15 Centres as of
today). Japan has also contributed to UNESCO Japanese Fund in Trust for the Promotion of
Literacy and Japanese Fund in Trust for Community Learning Centres to promote literacy
of women in Asia and the Pacific Region. The National Women's Education Centre also has
been actively engaged in international programs for exchange and training.
After the government's institutional reform, Women's Education Division became Gender
Equality Learning Division, which made it possible to include men as their target and to
link their programs with those under nonformal education. The Division became the focal
point for gender equality in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology.
7. Challenges Access and Beyond
Japanese women were fortunate because the basic education was considered important for
girls since the beginning of Japan's development as a modern nation. Their school
enrolment and literacy rates were lower than those of men but they caught up considerably.
They were allowed access to education beyond the compulsory and the secondary levels.
The quality of education was varied but the same was true for men. Education and training
for girls, however have been effective instruments to create women to think and behave in
such a way to fit the roles socially and culturally assigned to them. Even the higher level of
education did not bring women to the position equal to their male counterparts in the public
sphere. A large number of women have been working and have contributed to the economic
development but the reward system treat women and men differently because the system
defines the value of their work unequally. What the society values high in women’s
activities are unpaid. Education for women is not strictly meant as a resource for
employment and income generation.
In this regard, we have made a considerable progress in approaching a goal of “gender
equality in education” but our progress has been minimal in making “education a resource
for achieving gender equality” which involves a transformation of relations between women
and men and the gendered social system.
What is most needed in Japanese society is to change the gender ideology particularly in the
work place. Deprivation of women’s right to work equal to men is a loss not only for
individual women but also for the society at large. Education can become an indispensable
resource for economic empowerment of women only when the evaluation and reward
system is free of gender.