Education for Women and Girls in Japan - Progress and Challenges

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", 28-30 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 co-educational 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 two-thirds of the girls were enrolled in junior colleges where the principle of women-' s education was in line with the pre-world-war-II ideology. It was only in the late 1990s, that girls' enrolment in the 4-year 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 better-educated 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 gender-specific: 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 mate-selection 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 mind-set 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, side-reading 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 decade-term basic plan and the 5-year-term 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 non-formal education, gender training for the staff in formal and non-formal 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 non-formal 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.