The Survey Educational Contents and Methods on Women's Studies in Adult Education

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 06610265
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Educaion
• Research Institution: Natonal Women's Education Center
• Principal Investigator: UEMURA Chikako National Women's Education Center ・ Program Division ・ Senior Researcher, 事業課, 主任研究官 (70259985)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKANO Hiroe National Women's Education Center ・ Program Division ・ Researcher, 事業課, 研究員 (60155786)
• Project Period (FY): 1994
• Keywords: Women's Studies / Course on Women's Studies / Education of Women's Studies / View of Gender Roles / Women and Human Rights / Family / Women and Labor / Raising the Consciousness of Gender-role

Research Abstract

This research was based on a questionnaire given to participants in courses on women's studies held by the National Women's Education Center (NWEC) and other local women's education facilities, women's centers, and life-long education facilities. It revealed objectives of participation, cotents and methods expected of women's courses, problems in learning, and views of gender-role, and views regarding equal status for men and women. The answers were correlated by sex, age and occupation, and the contents and methods applied to women's studies in the field of abult education were examined.
Of the 956 questionnaires distributed between August 1994 and January 1995 among the participants in the various women's courses, 604 (63%) (545 women and 56 men) were comoleted and returned. The following are the results :
(1) Regarding the notion "men should go out to work, and women stay at home", to which 23% of the respondents answered positively in a Public Opinion Poll on the Equality for Men and Women couducted by the Primo Minister's Office in 1992, only 1% replied affirmatively in this study. Thio indicates that the partivipants were free from the idea of stereotyped gender role. Our survey also showed differences in the views of gender-role between participants to the courses held by NWEC and those by other facilities, and by sex, occupation and age.
(2) Concerning problems in learning women's studies, the two preferred replies were : "the contents are too extensive to be focussed on, " and "methods for solving women's issues are not clear."
(3) Regarding the contents that participants themselves expected to study, differences existed among the respondents according to facility, sex, occupation aand age. "Sex, sex distinction and gender-roles" , "home and family" , "labor and occupations" , "social activities" , "education and learning" , "politics and policcies" and "raising the consciousness of gender-role among men" were listed as desirable by all categories.
(4) By analyzing by category of respondents, their views of gender-role and the expected contents and methods of study, we successfully gainedfundamental data for determining the most appropriate subjects for women's Studies in abult education and specific contents corresponding to the various lifestyles and stages of life of adult men and women.