Shifting Spheres: The Work and Family Life of Japanese Female Graduates

Abstract

Women occupy a subordinate and peripheral place in the Japanese paid workforce and most women experience a considerable interruption to their employment history while they have young children. This is especially true of university graduates, who are less likely than average to continue in paid employment. This paper draws on the Sino-Japanese Survey of Working Women's Lives to provide insight into that minority of women who continue in paid work in this phase of life. The data confirm the general picture of the female workforce, but make it possible to highlight a sub-group of graduates who have secured a foothold in primary sector employment and whose domestic life exhibits a shift away from the sharp gender division typical of Japanese households. It is suggested that the life courses of Japanese women show signs of increasing differentiation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bacon, A.M. (1902) Japanese Girls and Women, London: Gay and Bird.

Berger, P.A. , Steinmuller, P. and Stropp, P. (1993) `Differentiation of Life Courses? Changing Patterns if Labour Market Sequences in West Germany', European Sociological Review, 9, 1, 43-66.

Bonney, N. (1988) `Dual Earning Couples: Trends of Change in Great Britain', Work, Employment and Society, 2, 1, 89-102.

Bianchi, S.M. and Spain, D. (1986) American Women in Transition, New York: Russell Sage.

Brinton, M.C. (1988) `The social-institutional bases of gender stratification: Japan as an illustrative case', American Journal of Sociology, 94, 300-334.

Brinton, M.C. (1993) Women and the Economic Miracle, Oxford: University of California Press.

Eccleston, B. (1989) State and Society in Post-War Japan, Cambridge: Polity.

Hunter, J. (1989) The Emergence of Modern Japan, London: Longman.

Lam, A. (1992) Women and Japanese Management, London: Routledge.

10.

Martin, J. and Roberts, C. (1984) Women and Employment; A Lifetime Perspective, London: OPCS/Department of Employment HMSO.

11.

Morishima, M. (1982) Why Has Japan Succeeded?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Saso, M. (1990) Women in the Japanese Workplace, London: Shipman.

13.

Sheng X. , Stockman, N. and Bonney, N. (1992) `The dual burden: East and West', International Sociology, 7, 2, 209-223.

14.

Tobin, J.J. , Wu, D. and Davidson, D. (1989) Pre-school in Three Cultures, London: Yale University Press.

15.

Usui, C. (1992) `Employment Patterns of Japanese Women' in P. Lan Lin et al. (eds.) Families: East and West, Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Press.

16.

Usui, C. (1993a) `Female Labour Force Participation in Japan: Continuity and Change in the Post-World War Two Period', paper presented to the Second International Symposium on Families: East and West, University of Indianapolis.

17.

Usui, C. (1993b) `Do American Models of Female Career Attainment Apply to Japan', paper presented to the Midwest Japan Seminar, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

18.

Waite, L. (1993) New Families, No Families, The Transformation of the American Family, cited in `Sociologist Finds Family Structure Change Reflected in Housework', Reports, Chicago: Division of Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 12 (Spring), 4-5.