| Summary: | Guided by the emerging interest in gender of siblings as one important
sociological component in American family studies, the major objective of this study
was to examine the effect of sex composition of siblings on women's levels of
educational attainment in the Japanese setting. The present study hypothesized
that the presence of brothers poses women a greater obstacle to a high level of
educational attainment than the presence of sisters. For the purpose of gaining
more depth in understanding Japanese women's education, this study also
investigated other factors which differentiate the patterns of educational
attainment between men and women.
Two major methods were employed for the exploration. First, in order to
examine the effect of sibling gender, this study analyzed quantitative data obtained
from a sample of 518 young women. Second, face-to-face interviews were
conducted with 15 mothers and 15 young women individually. In the interviews,
in addition to several issues surrounding women's education, the mothers were
asked their experiences about their children's education whereas the young women
were asked their own educational experiences.
The quantitative results identified gender of siblings as one important
family characteristic in explaining women's levels of educational attainment.
While providing some support for the quantitative findings, the qualitative data
revealed the importance of other factors including parental attitudes toward gender
role ideology and the notion of an appropriate marriage age. Implications of the
findings for future research are discussed. === Graduation date: 1996
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