What is Gender Feminism

This comparative study of gender messages in Japanese textbooks reveals a pattern of underlying sex discrimination as well as efforts at reform. There is a “hidden curriculum”—the presence of powerful, hegemonic messages that reinforce dominant social structural values of a gender binary—shaping the learning environment and sustaining structural inequalities. An effort to address the hidden curriculum of gender and sexuality biases in Japanese textbooks was published in 2020 through the National Elementary School Health textbooks and curriculum. This study analyzes existing gender messages permeating the explicit and hidden curriculum and reform efforts, employing mixed methods of content analysis and ethnographic observations.