Elite Education for Female Students: An Empirical Analysis of the Sources of Gender Disparities in Attending Japanese Elite National Universities

Abstract

Japan has seen a substantial improvement in gender equality in many aspects, but women continue to be underrepresented in the elite national universities in Japan, where they comprise 20~30%. Since elite universities shape cultural and social norms, gender inequality in such institutions may reflect and reproduce gender inequality. For these reasons, better understanding its causes is an important education policy issue.

This thesis examines two explanations for this gender gap. The first explanation is that women believe that attending a more elite institution would delay the age of marriage. The second is that women intend to stop working, and thus will see lower wage returns to attending an elite school. I designed and conducted an original survey to examine how these beliefs are influencing the school choice of high school students. Surveys were conducted in a public high school in the Kansai area and 491 students responded. Findings indicated that whether the students think going to the top national universities would delay their marriage age is not associated with their school choice. However, the results show that female students who have a preference for continuing work of high intensity after marriage are more likely to choose to apply for the elite national universities. This demonstrates that actions within the education system alone may be insufficient to change the gender disparity in elite universities and broader social change would be necessary.