Not having read the whole thread, I don't find it that surprising. Philology (of any language) is a career that appeals much more to females, at least here in my country, and I suposse Japanese teachers studied Japanese philology at Japan.
As to why philology is more attractive for women, well, no offense but I think it's because it looks soft, easy and enjoyable even if it's not as useful. Society expects women to pursue that kind of career. On the other hand you have engineering, math and the like chock full of dudes for the opposite reasons.

How about the opposite point: Are there many male Japanese instructors in Japan that teach foreigners? All four that I've seen have been male. Granted, that's at a college level and at military bases.

So, those that attended a language school of some sort in Japan, what's been the mix?

PS: I'll go with the theory is if a guy has strong enough grasp on foreign language to teach Japanese in a foreign country, then he's likely to have much better job prospects at home. The large number of female instructors in foreign countries likely has more to do with convenience related to a marital situation. (no proof or evidence follows, carry on.)

Nukemarine Wrote:So, those that attended a language school of some sort in Japan, what's been the mix?

One guy, ten or so women.

Nukemarine Wrote:So, those that attended a language school of some sort in Japan, what's been the mix?

Been a while since I was there, but I think the ratio was probably ten women to one male teacher or worse.

Is it just Japanese teachers in America? Because in my middle school and high school, all of the foreign language teachers were female.

Well, there goes that theory. Guess even in Japan the phenomena holds true also.

As far as I see it, males have higher expectations placed upon them to be competitive, earn lots and support a family, so thus wouldn't see a relatively low-paid teaching job as viable.

When your peers are all competing hard to become 会社員, there's pressure to keep up with the race, not to mention pressure from parents. When your girl friends are becoming OLs, manicurists, childcare workers and nurses, with the odd career woman/highly skilled professional here and there, there's not so much social competition.

I've certainly felt this in my country too, with parents who expect me to become some important business figure (not that I'm interested) + salary motivated, competitive male peers at university.

As for the predominance of males in english teaching jobs in Japan: yellow fever.

What about English teachers in American schools or 国語 teachers in Japan? Does anyone see any gender trend there? In my case, all of my English teachers from high school on were male.

I've had 6 Japanese teachers, all women.

=> IceCream. Ah...okay...a few of us were talking about how traditional roles in Japan/Korea would affect the motivation of Japanese/Korean people. You were thinking about how American ones might affect Japanese people. Now your other comment make some sense to me:

Quote:Yeah!!! i think this its way way more reasonable than the "traditional roles" theory, especially since we're specifically speaking about Japanese teachers.

I took Aijin's comment to mean that men held the senior positions (power), despite the large number of female teachers. That's similar to my experience at a few Japanese departments, so it probably influenced my interpretation. Ruillart might have taken it the same way (his department is 6:1 female):

Ruillart Wrote:So the case Aijin described is definitely apparent here, but looking at my department alone, the men seem to still hold that grip over the education system. They mostly hold the tenured (or tenure-track) positions and make larger decisions within the department

[deleted 3 other quotes about the man-in-senior-position trend... ] ;p

[edit: Thanks, Shihoro. I'll happily take what I deserve from Kazelee and IceCream. :-) With Iryoku, it might be just a matter of language and perspective.]

The Harvard Extension School Japanese department, where I learned, has three female teachers and one male.

When I got an internet tutor, she was female. My friend from class got an in-person tutor, and she was female.

My ancedote would seem to confirm the hypothesis Aijin proposes.

At the university of Manitoba we have 3 japanese woman, 1 white guy and another white guy who lived in japan for like 20 years then came back to be our department head but still teaches japanese. When I talked to my 先生　about how she became a teacher, she told me that she got an English degree in japan. Then she came to Canada where she did a computer science degree because she couldn't do anything with her English degree (even though she didn't really like her degree in Comp sci). Then she landed the teaching job the UofM.