ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Home Economics’ ambivalent relationship to the ideal of gender equality in Japan and Norway. Home Economics emerged in both nations as a segregated school subject for girls and played a significant role in post-war modernisation. The most significant difference between Norway and Japan in Home Economics education today concerns the place allocated to the learning of domestic skills in the curriculum with Norway opting for a focus on ‘food and health’ and Japan including a wide range of home and life skills. Interviews conducted with current teachers in Home Economics reveal that ‘gender equality’ is not covered within the curriculum in either country in spite of policy-level commitments. Teachers do, however, focus on the subject's potential to develop pupils’ sense of creativity, suggesting that novel approaches may be transforming the subject. We argue that the subject's diminished importance in today's school subject hierarchy is the result of its historical connections to ‘women's work,’ but the subject has much to contribute to Japan and Norway as they seek out more sustainable ways of living and attempt to introduce more equal partnerships in domestic labour.
