Becoming an Anthropologist

Abstract

I was 15 when I had to decide for the first time in my life about my own route to take. According to the old educational system, which lasted until 1946 in Japan, after finishing 5 years of general education at the middle school, which followed immediately after 6 years of primary school, girls had little choice of higher educational institutions: there were only the girls’ colleges which specialized in particular types of vocational training. For the boys, besides vocational training colleges, there were also the higher educational institutions called High Schools, offering a kind of preparatory stage before proceeding to the Imperial Universities which catered for those who became the élite of the community, including those in various professional groups. Thus girls were excluded from the possibility of entering the élite class of higher civil servants and top professionals. Some universities allowed a few girls to attend lectures as occasional students, but the highest ones, like the University of Tokyo, closed their doors completely to girls. Therefore women scientists were extremely rare: a few were to be found among those who studied as occasional students or who had received training in Western universities.