Japanese Changing Gender Roles

1059 Words5 Pages
Good Morning, Today I am going to talk to you about the changing role of women in the educational system of Japan during the 20th century and how Durkheimis’ functionalist theory of social change can be used to explain these changing roles. In traditional Japanese society, specifically during the tokugawa shoganates rule in the late Edo period, becoming educated was a role largely dominated by males. This was mostly due to the agrarian social structure and patriarchal hierarchy at the time. Education was required by high authoritative figures, such as Daimyo and Samurai, roles that were customarily male. As women were never meant to fill these roles, educating them seemed waste of both time and resources when they were far more useful in the home raising children and farming the land. This is not to say not all women were un-educated, it is estimated that by the end of the Edo period 20 percent of the female population held some degree of literacy as a result of small Terakoya schools, however this number is relatively small compared to the 60 percent of educated males. After the fall of the shogonate, the Meiji restoration marked a change in the norms and values associated with education in Japan. The new government put Japan into a process of rapid modernization in an attempt to bring it up to standard with the western nations it had been isolated from during the Edo period. The Meiji government believed that a modernized society needed an organized education system in order to make it united and strong as well as aid with industrialization to catch up with western technology and economic status. With the introduction of Compulsory education for all regardless of class or gender, the old stigmas attached to education were broken down, especially as many of the male roles that that had required education either no longer existed, or had lost their authority
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