Abstract:

This study examines if the gender disparity in work-family planning, that seems to be prevalent among younger Japanese generations, is also found in university youth at an institution that promotes critical thinking and who are beginning to think about their future with work and family. In order to address this topic, the authors answer the following research question: How do issues of gender ideology, entrenched in Japanese society for generations, affect contemporary pre-service teachers’ assumptions toward their tacit beliefs about their gender role in the work force? In addition to addressing the guiding research question, this study explores how one might disrupt the traditional views that are so deeply rooted in the minds of Japanese youth in a teacher education course.

While this study is ongoing, at this point, I found that some of the female university students who participated in this study expressed, at least to some extent, their desire to establish a career after graduating from university, a finding supported by Lee et al. (2010). Some of the female university students are motivated to take a significant role in the work force by overcoming the gender stratification that women in Japan have experienced and have been expected to comply with for generations. Additionally, some of the university female students indicated their wish to be socioeconomically independent and to emancipate themselves from the normative gender ideology that is deeply-rooted in Japanese society. These findings may suggest some progress in Japanese society relevant to gender equity, especially among those with greater education, where such attitude changes are likely to begin (Cunningham, 2008). Despite these potential changes in attitude, the majority of the female university students have internalized the traditional gender ideology of gender inequality ingrained in Japanese society, as indicated by responses to the annual income that the female university students expect to earn by the age 30, which for most is lower than that of the male participants. Therefore, the notion of men as the breadwinner has also been ingrained in the female university students. Accordingly, the traditional idea that women ascribe their happiness to finding a financially stable husband with whom to raise a new family has been passed on to many of the female university students, confirming the findings of previous research (Lee et al., 2010). Additionally, these normative roles that continue to pervade Japanese society are based on the presupposition of heterosexuality, excluding the consideration of other gender and sexual identities beyond those of the cisgender heterosexual male and female.

Keywords:

Gender in Education, Teacher Education, Pre-service Teachers, Multicultural Education.