女性たちが学ぶことの今日的な意味：国立市公民館における女性講座参加者の経験から

抄録

  This paper aims to clarify the significances of women’s learning at kominkans (community learning centers) within the current context of women learners at Kunitachi City Kominkan (Tokyo, Japan). Among developments such as the United Nations’ International Women’s Year (1975), Decade for Women (1976-85), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ratified by the Japanese government (1985), the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing (1995), and the Basic Act for a Gender Equal Society enacted as the first comprehensive legislation for anti-sexism in Japan (1999), women’s learning at kominkans has been continuously deployed until the present. The stagnation of this learning indicates, however, it’s significance for women learners has still been unquestionably maintained even in different forms. Learners indicate that the kominkans are significant in the following three ways: (1)“making an inventory of life” according to their life stages; (2) creating connections among women within the local community over generations; and (3) questioning their working and family life by expanding kominkan’s topical seminar room into the whole of their everyday life.