Abstract
This report analyzed the effect of the home economics lesson "Gender and ourselves" which was tried with 1st grade students in a senior high school in Fukui Prefecture. Data includes student questionnaires, free descriptions and their final research reports. The results were as follows : (1) Ninety-four percent of the students replied that the study was interesting which suggests that the lesson was evaluated with high acceptability. (2) The lesson items, which students reacted most strongly to, were, "Designing cloths to wear in school" "Steps for independent living" "Thinking about your future plan and occupation" and "Research report". These items commonly included study procedure in which students could recognize themselves at the moment, look towards their future and search for what they wanted to know. (3) In the free final description provided after the lesson was over, 56% of students wrote that their levels of consciousness with regards to gender bias and the need for positive attitudes toward gender equity increased. Female students showed more active interest on gender equity than male students. (4) Two thirds of the students selected topics on gender issues in their final report. The most popular theme was about the issues of gender role and gender discrimination in relation to work. From this, it seems that the theme of the lesson was successfully transmitted to the class. These results lead to the conclusion that the purpose of the lesson "To help students become aware of gender bias both in themselves and in society, and to get a positive attitude toward gender equity", was achieved and that the theoretical framework for the lesson on gender was proven to be effective.
