The Impact of Protestantism on Women's Education in Japan

Abstract

Gender gaps in education persist in many developing countries. Understanding how some nations narrowed these gaps in the past can provide insights into human-capital formation. This thesis examines whether Protestant missionary activity, particularly the work of single female missionaries, influenced women’s educational attainment in Japan. Using historical and census data from 46 Japanese prefectures, I use a two-stage least squares (2SLS) approach, instrumenting on the number of missionaries to identify potential causal effects. The result shows the presence of Protestant missionaries in Japan, especially single female missionaries, is a strong predictor of the establishment of Protestant girls’ high schools. These schools appear to have a positive impact on women’s tertiary educational attainment. IV estimates indicate: using single Protestant female missionaries to instrument schools, one additional Protestant girls’ high school per million people raised women’s tertiary attainment by 0.584%, relative to a mean of 1.522% (a 0.81 standard-deviation increase). Comparable effects are observed for Catholic missions. Effects at the secondary level were primarily observed among women, though tertiary gains also extended to men. This study contributes to literature on religion, human capital formation, and female role models in shaping women’s education. Keywords: Protestantism; Missionaries; Japan; Gender; Human capital.