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Guest Speaker : Ms. Mitsuko Ono (Aichi Shukutoku University)

Grammatical Meaning of "Gender"
Gender is a classification of nouns or nounlike words. This kind of classification is widespread. Some of Indo-European language, such as German or Latin, have 3 genders (female, male, and neutral). The modern Romance languages, such as French or Spanish, have only 2 genders (female and male).

The difference between man and woman

Biological difference	-->	"SEX"
Social distinction	-->	"GENDER"

The image of Japanese

When	How the Western people see Japanese...
	Men.	Women.
In Paris Expo	"Bushi"	"Gei-sha"
In London Expo	"Good Quality Products such as pot"	"Gei-sha" <-- Not changed
...	...	...
Now	Quick, Efficient, but Yet Crazy	??? (No strong image)

Why the Image of Japanese women was not changed.
In the past, many people (not only men but also most of women) thought that women should not be active outside home but should be at home to dedicate to house making. Owing to this concept, many women could not have enough opportunity for them to show their ability. At that time, only the womenn who can show their image is "Gei-sha". That is why the image of Japanese woman was "Gei-sha". In short, this concept has been prevent most of Japanese women from expressing their image or ability. After the 2nd world war, this concept has been improved. However, the speed of its improvement is very slow. Japanese people seem to have this concept still now. Now, there is a question. "Husband should be more educated than his wife." What do you think about this opinion? Most of Japanese people think that it is true to some extent. However, it is this concept that makes gender-equality difficult to be improved. We should reconsider this concept so that any person can equally get opportunity to show her or him ability, regardless of gender difference. It is the problem in our society.

Realted Sites
Gender Gap

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