Loek van Kooten, MARE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/116272452447529462
According to exhibitions and media reports, the claim that “half of the members of the samurai class in the Edo period were women” does not refer to “samurai as warriors,” but rather to the entire families belonging to the samurai class (shizoku).
In other words, it is a demographic explanation based on social classification, indicating that women made up half of the population when including the wives and daughters of samurai households.