日本高等教育及女性技能的形成

Higher Education and Women’s Skill Formation in Japan

本研究在「技術形成體系」的理論框架下，著眼於探討擴大日本女性教育機會的結果。基植於出自「資本主義類型論」的「技術形成體系」理論。技術形成體系的概念自2000年代初期開始發展，將教育系統視為習得技能的場所，而這為透過對於學校習得的技能因深刻理解而擴大了高等教育的暗示，提供強而有力的解釋。於此概念框架下，本論文對於不同教育背景的女性進行分析，瞭解其所習得的特定種類之技能。研究發現：首先，日本女性傾向於學校習得其工作技能，與男性有所不同，男性傾向於在學校畢業後於工作場合上習得技能，而這起因於日本對女性不友善的「企業特定的技能形成系統」。第二，由於女性於大學可選擇攻讀的領域隨教育改革而變多，其技能形成模式已從「一般技能導向」轉移至「職業技能導向」。第三，除了傳統上女性主導的技能之外，不論其教育背景為何，亦追求新型的福利服務種類的技能。在職業生涯中，甚至於大學就讀的女性中也有相同的趨勢，因而，本研究發現，日本女性教育程度的增加未必提升了社會的性別平等。1980年代晚期至1990年代初期的一系列高等教育改革提升了女性的大學入學率，同時也給予女性在大學科目上更多的選擇，然而這也出乎意料的使更多高學歷的女性從事女性主導的技能。

This paper aims to explore the consequences of expanding educational opportunities for the Japanese women within the theoretical framework of “skill formation regime,” which has developed since the early 2000s from the “Varieties of Capitalism (VoC)” theory. The concept of skill formation regime regards educational systems as venues of skill acquisition, and this offers compelling explanation for the implication of expanding higher education through the insights into the types of skills acquired at schools. Under this conceptual framework, this paper carries out analyses to find out specific types of skills acquired by women with different educational backgrounds. Findings are summarized as follows: First, Japanese women tend to acquire occupational skills through schools, which is different from men who rather tend to acquire their skills after graduating from schools through on the job training, and this is caused by the Japanese “firm-specific skill formation systems” that are not women-friendly. Second, as women’s choices of study fields at university have broadened along with the educational reforms, their skill formation patterns have shifted from “general skill-oriented” to “vocational skill-oriented.” Third, in addition to traditionally female-dominant skills, there are new types of skills for welfare services pursued by women amid their careers, regardless of their educational backgrounds. Even women enrolled in university show the same trend. This paper concludes that an increase in Japanese women’s educational attainment has not necessarily contributed to gender equality in society. A series of higher education reforms during the late 1980 to early 1990s brought the increase in female enrolment in university, but the reform also brought a wider range of subject choices for women at university, and this has unexpectedly pushed more and more highly educated women into female-dominant skills.