Gender

Gender, visually, it is a hard concept to grasp, or snap, because no matter how expressive it might be, between neutral insight and what is real can be hard to elate upon.

The sight of gender that has really stricken me is the amount of girls that go to my school and I suppose seeing a flood of high heels though the gates every morning has made me realize…no. See how the gender roles are changing in Japan. Maybe at first it wasn’t the amount of women that surprised me until I realized the lack of men and that for a pretty well known school women are definitely not the minority.

Gender roles have been a prominent part in Japanese history, and women especially have been tied to certain ones in the family situation. I feel that a woman’s gender role also reflects and alters the role that she is traditionally associated with in the home life. So in some sense an individual’s gender can add to the build of the structure to their future family and in some cases this can either be socially be looked down upon or not.

In grocery stores it is still largely women shopping, kitchen appliances geared toward a more feminine buyer, so old gender roles are still active but they are quickly changing.

Many girls that I go to Kansai Gaidai with have no interest in care giving and are really using university to find their own independence and career path.
Like my friend above (who I have permission from to post her picture) Women are
going to university and Japan having large amounts of female students study abroad and they are taking hold of many chances so it is pretty evident that women in Japan are gaining empowerment.
My friend above also has enlightened me on some new slang called “Career Woman”, as “Salary Man” have been a long standing term for mean in the business field but now there is term for women.

So far these changes in Japanese society have altered many things such as marriage life, the more Japanese women are entering higher status jobs, schools and careers the more the aspect of young marriage is disappearing and the more want there is to find a husband to meet their own success.
A graph as these changes can be shown here:
http://www.blacktokyo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/fig2_7.gif

These are not necessarily bad because they are being alter but it does cause a stir in Japanese society.
Although, the more women in Japan that are serious about entering university the more perhaps the gender roles will change and if they continue to succeed at higher education and careers than these changes will become a part of Japanese evolution and less a making the changes seem like controversies.


Here is a link to a well written and interesting report about the beginning changes of gender roles, particuarly women, in the 1990's
http://members.tripod.com/~marklsl/Writings/japan.htm