MISSION SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

Karen SEAT

Christian mission schools for girls and women have played an important role
in modem Japanese history and culture. These schools pioneered higher edu-
cation for women in Japan in the 1870s, providing some of the highest levels
of education for Japanese women until World War II. Although all-male edu-
cational institutions opened to women after World War II, largely altering the
place and purpose of all-female schools, mission-affiliated women's schools
have continued as a significant presence in Japan's educational world to the
present day. An examination of the 130-year history of Christian mission
schools for Japanese women sheds light on broader issues related to gender in
Japanese history, as mission schools have helped to shape and have been
shaped by socio-political transformations in Japan.
Japan's transformation after World War II radically altered the role of mis-
sion schools for girls and women, and thus it is necessary to examine the
history of these schools within two distinct periods: 1868 to 1945, and 1946
to the present. From their beginnings in the Meiji period ( 1868-1912) until
World War II (1931-1945), mission schools were among a handful of private
schools offering the top academic programs in women's education, far sur-
passing the education provided at government-funded girls' and women's
schools. While mission schools before 1946 were often involved in broaden-
ing women's roles in society, Japanese public schools, under the instruction of
government officials, were intent on establishing women's subservient place
in the Japanese state. The 1899 Meiji Civil Code specifically detailed the
roles women were expected to play in the family and state; it legally estab-
lished the ie, or household system, in which women were given few legal
rights, and were thus entirely dependent on the legal powers of the male
household head. Public education for girls and women reflected this state
gender ideology until the Meiji Constitution and Civil Code were replaced in
1946. When the national educational system was created during the Meiji Era,
the government reinforced the ie ideal through an educational agenda for

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