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IGWS Newsletter Vol. 32

  • Report on the 24th IGWS Seminar at Aichi Shukutoku University
  • Students' feedback on the 24th IGWS Seminar
  • "The reason why I strongly recommend our students to work in dual-income households" ― An essay written by Keiko Harayama, Lecturer at Aichi Shukutoku University
  • "Internship and a vision of working in a real society" ― An essay written by Tetsuya Matsuo, Assistant Professor at Aichi Shukutoku University, Career Center
  • A report from Gender Research Project II
  • Greeting from our new IGWS director
  • Gender awareness among our students toward their occupations
  • Announcement about the 25th IGWS Seminar
  • Gender & Women's Studies: Open lectures (2011)

Report on the 24th IGWS Seminar

"Date DV and Love ― Tips for a Good Relationship"
(Speaker：Mr. Hiroyuki Ida. Lecturer at Ritsumeikan University. Executive Committee Member of "Union Bochibochi")

　In this regular seminar, Mr. Hiroyuki Ida talked about "Date DV". He is working on gender and poverty problems while he does his research work on labor issues and social policies from a gender perspective.

　"Date DV" is a word which refers to violence between unmarried boyfriends and girlfriends. The term includes the behaviors of your boyfriend "taking an absolute priority over your meeting other friends, " "constantly checking your emails from other people," and "constantly sending you emails to check what you are doing and try to constrain you. " . These behaviors have been observed in recent years among students and young couples.

　Some people do not realize that they have problems of "Date DV" because to love in general tends to include these behaviors. When you love someone, you affirm some controlling power and accept some gender roles. "In love, two people become one." "To love is to endure." These conventional feelings of love are the breeding grounds of "Date DV."

　In "Date DV", you lose your confidence of being yourself, and lose your freedom to act how, when and with whom you like. "Date DV" deprives you of chances to develop yourself as an individual.

　In order to avoid "Date DV," it is important to be aware that there is a "gray zone." A "gray zone" lies in between the "equal relationship" and "not-equal relationship." By being sensitive to this "gray zone," you can avoid the violence. If you have "Date DV," don't blame yourself, and consult a grown-up in whom you can trust.

　"Date DV" is to control someone by power and any control by power leads to "Date DV". Our society should also be aware that "Date DV" is a "violence" and a "crime."

　"Have faith in yourselves. Do not be disturbed by your love relationships. Experience a lot of good relationships with many people. Please treasure the wholesome growth of your mind." Mr.Ida's words must have resonated in the minds of the audience.

A report from Gender Research Project II

   (Mitoko Hirabayashi. Professor at Aichi Shukutoku University, Faculty of Letters)

　The first Research Result from IGWS ( Institute of Gender and Women's Studies) at Aichi Shukutoku University was published in February, 2009. A year prior to this publication, the Research Project II was launched. The purposes of the Project II are as follows. First, we can promote our faculty members' research works with a gender prospective in their own fields. Secondly, by reviewing our ways of gender and career educations, we can contribute some insights to our new education project.

　In our research and academic educations, "gender and education" had been our common theme. However, we later found that the two major themes of "gender" and "education" were too big to deal with simultaneously in our research fields. As a result, we removed "education" from the original theme and now only "gender" is our common theme.

　Currently, our seven project members are writing papers for the upcoming publication (to be published in March, 2012). In this project we also conducted the follow-up survey of 5,979 university graduates' careers and we will also publish a report on the results in March, 2012.

The contents of our publication are currently scheduled as follows.

  • "Diversity in women's continued employments ― Exploring the alternative possibilities" (Yoshie Ishida, Faculty of Global Culture and Communication)
  • "Gender and interpersonal behaviors" (Kazumi Ogawa, Faculty of Psychology)
  • "A study on the debate of gender disparities in British education, 1980s" (Mitsuyoshi Sato, Faculty of Letters)
  • "Solidarity of Care ― A single mother in " Let's Make Lemonade," a children's book in America (Hiroko Takahashi, Lecturer at Aichi Shukutoku University)
  • "Gender Studies on Japanese textbooks in elementary schools" (Mayumi Nakajima, Faculty of Letters)
  • "Father and fatherhood in a 2010 TV drama "Sunaoni narenakute (Sorry for not being honest)" (Mitoko Hirabayashi, Faculty of Letters)
  • "The division of labors by gender roles formed by the media " (Kouji Wakamatsu, Faculty of Global Culture and Communication)

The Greeting from our new director of IGWS

  (Masayo Sakai, Professor at Aichi Shukutoku University, Faculty of Media Theories and Production)

　This spring when I was assigned as director of this institute, I received a file entitled "The History of Opening the Curse 'Women and Society' since 1987." According to the file, prior to the establishment of this institute, the course "Women and Society" had been available in the liberal arts omnibus course as early as the mid-1980s.

　The omnibus course "Women and Society" started in 1987, which was the year following the enforcement of the "Equal Employment Opportunity Law". Along with the changes and diversities of our choices in our life cycles, it is still important, especially for young people, to have a broad perspective and regard "now" and "the future." On the other hand, the social situation over the past 25 years has been changing rapidly, and the problems young people must face have become more complicated than ever. As I am now deeply aware of enormous challenges I have to deal with, I would like to build up my work step by step, encouraged by the wonderful work done by my predecessor, Dr. Mitoko Hirabayashi, and those who established and operated this institute as an educational research center.

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