Women’s Issues / 女性の問題

　Yesterday in the 11th grade English discussion class the students talked about women's issues. They decided the topics by themselves.

　One of the topics was the sexualisation of young girls. The students talked about make-up and when the best time to start wearing make up is. They thought that it's natural for little girls to experiment with make-up, and for them to try to dress like their mothers. However, it's a little dangerous these days because younger girls are better at putting on make-up than before. There are many online tutorials for this, and there are more toys for girls to use to practice putting on make-up. This can be dangerous because it makes young girls look older than they are. This may lead to older boys trying to date them. It's unsafe.

　The other topic was the gender gap. We watched a short video and saw that Japan ranks 115th out of 144 countries. That ranking is lower then the global average. The students discussed why they thought Japan ranked so low, and tried to think of ways to encourage gender equality. They also discussed the difference between gender equality and gender neutrality. Many countries in Scandinavia are becoming gender neutral in schools and offices. That means that they don't differentiate between male and female - everyone is human and that is all.

　These topics were very interesting and I was happy that the students tried to discuss such difficult but important things together. I'm looking forward to their next discussion.