■ Background■ Philosophy

Meiji University is a pioneer in women’s higher
education. This legacy can be traced back to1929 when the university opened a women’sschool and offered special courses on law andcommerce for female students. Many alumnae
became jurists including Japan’s ﬁrst female
lawyers and judges. This women’s school, later a
women’s junior college, played a signiﬁcant role topromote women’s participation in society. The
junior college was closed down in March 2004
with its role completed, but its legacy wassucceeded by the School of Information andCommunication. Gender Center was founded at
this new School in April 2010 to further explore
gender issues and promote gender equality in thepresent and future. Since then the center’s activities expand and bring results.

With the advent of a growing global informationage, our societies are undergoing profoundeconomic, political, and socio-cultural changes
both within and beyond national borders. Gender
as a notion increases in its signiﬁcance in thiscontext of social change providing a perspectivethat allows us to address increasingly important
issues such as various forms of inequality andoppression as well as ﬁxed gender roles and todevelop new ideas and concepts for creating apeaceful, happy society. It is our urgent task towork towards achievement of a harmonious
society in which people and groups with diverse
cultural backgrounds may respect differencesamong them. For this purpose, we apply ourschool’s ﬂexible, future-oriented academic stanceto promote a society where diversity is recognized.

School of Information and Communication
Meiji UniversityMaru

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Subway Exit
JR Station Exithi LineOchanomizu Sta.

JR LineGlobal Front

Toei Shinjuku LineJimbocho Sta.

Yasukuni-Dori Ave.
Books Sanseido

Meidai-D

Liberty Tower

Nihon Univ. Hospital

Shin-Ochanomizu Sta.

Shikonkan Bldg.
Surugadai-Shita
CrossingLine

St. Nicholas Churchori Ave.

MEIJI UNIVERSITY
Academy Common
Surugadai Campus
Kyoundo Hospital
Liberty Tower 21F. Hilltop HotelonzomHanLine

neToei Mita Li

We at gender center conceptualize ouractivities to discuss issues related tosocial roles and cultural images ofgender and sexuality. In doing so, weemphasize the importance of diversity
as an ideal to achieve a society in which
various ways of life are accepted andsocial recognition as a key for forming
one’s identity.

GenderDiversity

1-1 Kanda-Surugadai
Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 101-8301
TEL & FAX : 03-3296-4436
E-mail : gender@meiji.ac.jp
Twitter : Meiji_gender
http://www.meiji.ac.jp/infocom/gender/oda

・Women in professional occupations
・Diversity management in organization
・Postwar women’s magazines and their impact
on lifestyle・Sexualization of male and female bodies inmedia
・Representation of couples in French andJapanese media

School of Information and Communication
Meiji UniversityGender CenterChiy■ Research Projects (Excerpt)

Gender CenterRecognition

Recognition

Key Concepts at Gender Center: Gender, Diversity, Social Recognition

GenderGender refers to what makes of oursex culturally and socially, whichcannot be determined solely by the
biological notion of sex.

Fashion and gender in media spaces

Work-life-balance and the normalcy in Japanese employment
A gender track today – care work, management, education
The effect of gender on behavior

Recognition refers to positive acceptance of others by judging them on thebasis of mutually agreed norms. It canbe achieved in various ways incontemporary societies – accepting
others as those emotionally bounded,members of an equal, liberal society,or people who belong to the samevalue community.

■ Topics of The Previous Events (Excerpt)
・Symposium: Labor and recognition: social justice from a gender
perspective (2010)
・Seminar series: Work-lifebalance, promoting women andJapan‘s economic revitalization(2012)
・Seminar series: Marriage andWhat is social recognition?

Symposium: Labor andrecognition

female employment in international comparison (2013)

Cultural analysis of kawaii and gender

Gender in popular culture and its reception

Child poverty – How to break the chain of poverty

・Special lecture: Decolonisinggender -- Understanding mascu-

Eating disorder and gender

What’s wrong with black companies and exploitation ofworkers and underestimation of commitment?

Stereotypical body images (sexy women, muscular men)

relations on a world scale (2014)

Seminar series: Marriageand female employment
in international comparison

・International interdisciplinary

Popular culture and sexuality – otaku and 2-D anime
Gender norms in trans/national media spaces

linities, femininities and gender

For an inclusive
societyHousehold labor – how can it be recognized?

symposium: Knowledge
construction through the lens of

Solidarity in labor and performance evaluationsocial and cultural diversity(2014)

Social power of appearanceSocial participation of the challenged
Disability and gender
Living as LGBTs
Diversiﬁcation of family forms – nuclear families, step families, single-parents

・Seminar series: Children andchildhood in Edo period (2015)

International interdisciplinary
symposium in Thailand

・Seminar series: Otaku andgender (2015)
・International symposium: Genderequality and diversity in research
environment (2015)

An inclusive society for all with diverse backgrounds?

Diversity
We see diversity as an importantcondition for our mutual support andharmonious coexistence. It is a touchstone issue for a today’s mature
democracy how we cope with difﬁculties arising from differences regarding
gender, sexuality, disability, culture,religion, ideology.

Living together – shared housing, collective housing, group housing

・MEIJI ALLY WEEK (2015)
・Seminar series: Recovery from

Seminar series: Recovery

anorexia -- From a perspective of from anorexia
clinical sociology (2016)

How is a society and an organization without
any discrimination and exclusion possible?

・Film screening and talk live:
Documentary, Chizuru (2016)
・Freeheld (2016)
・Seminar series: Mainstream
culture and LGBT (2016)

Gender gradation fashion show
in MEIJI ALLY WEEK