This study analyzed the roles and the changes in education of girls and that of homemaking in Ehime Prefecture in and after the Meiji Era, with the hope of discovering problems of our present and future. The means utilized were : documentary records, materials kept in schools, and the answers to questionnaires. The results of our study can be summarized as follows : 1. The percentage of elementary school attendance in early Meiji was rather low-especially that of females, many leaving school before completion. Hence, sewing education, though organized well, could not be enjoyed by so many girls. However, after mid-Meiji, the percentage rose rapidly, both boys and girls reaching 98%. 2. The start of secondary education for girls was early for a local prefecture. By the end of Meiji, the number of secondary schools for girls had reached 6.8% of that of Japan. 3. There were three types of girls' high schools--mission schools, public schools, and practical schools--and in all of them homemaking and sewing were given more hours than any other subject, the same as that of the rest of the country. 4. The answers to the questionnaires made to the graduates of mission and public schools showed that educational ideas of schools in those days still remained for those people who are now between eighty and ninety years of age.
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