30% Say Japanese Teachers Don't Treat Girls Equally
One in three Japanese high school girls feels that their teachers do not treat girls and boys equally, according to a new survey from the Girl Scouts of Japan.
The online survey of 764 junior high school girls and 799 senior high school girls across Japan was done between November and December last year.
When asked whether they believed teachers treat boys and girls equally, 31% of junior high school girls and 32% of senior high school girls said they did not.
The percentage of girls who have been told they didn't have to do something "because you are a girl" was 40% for junior high students and 52% for senior high students. In most cases this was something they were told by a teacher, and as an example many wrote they were told they didn't have to carry heavy things.
However, the percentage of girls who have been told they have to do something "because you are a girl" was 20% for junior high students and 30% for senior high students. For both groups of students this was something they were most often told by their mothers or by a teacher.
The survey also showed that over half of Japanese school girls do not feel confident about their appearance and feel pressured about it. Among junior high students, 59% said they felt pressured about their appearance, and 69% of senior high students said the same.
The Girl Scouts of Japan report suggested that such pressure may be because of the influence of the media.
