Abstract
Prior to World War II the employment rate of woman workers in Japan was generally low due to the feudalistic social system ; after the war, however, female workers rapidly advanced into many fields.
But in actuality, because of prevailing economic conditions in Japan, there are problems of discribimatory treatment on account of sex in various work positions including cases of companies demanding resignation of married women.
Under present circumstances female instructorship in public primary schools is an enviable profession on account both of its long history and of the high social esteem bestowed to it, not to mention its favorable economic and work conditions. Thus, the number of female teachers has now reached over half of all Japanese public primary school teachers.
With this as background knowledge a survey was conducted, by mailing method, of 600 female instructors in public primary schools in the Tokyo Metropolitan area which was divided into four districts for the purposes of the survey : 150 each sampled from the central (Chuo-ku, Chiyoda-ku), downtown (Adachi-ku, Edogawa-ku), uptown (Suginami-ku), and suburbian (the three Tama counties and Machida city) districts respectively. The data were classified by 'age groups ' and ' schools graduated ' and the level of social awareness and social class identification were studied of each group. The results indicate that there are rooms for a reexamination of the teacher training programs now in effect in Japan.
Female workers are expected to further increase in Japan in the near future partly due to the widespread use of household durable goods as well as the reduction in average family size. Under these circumstances female instructorship, as a profession most advantageous of all female positions, is expected to absorb more and more female labor, and it is most urgent that more importance should be attached to its problems.
