Beyond the gender gap in Japan / edited by Gill Steel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steel, Gill, 1965- author.

Contributor:

Steel, Gill, 1965- editor.

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Series:

Center for Japanese Studies monograph series ; 85.

Center for Japanese Studies monograph series ; 85

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Political activity--Japan.

Women.

Feminism--Japan.

Feminism.

Sex discrimination--Japan.

Sex discrimination.

Women--Japan--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 pages).

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2019.

Summary:

Why do Japanese women enjoy a high sense of well-being in a context of high inequality? Beyond the Gender Gap in Japan brings together researchers from across the social sciences to investigate this question. The authors analyze women's values and the lived experiences at home, in the family, at work, in their leisure time, as volunteers, and in politics and policy-making. Their research shows that the state and firms have blurred "the public" and "the private" in postwar Japan, constraining individuals' lives, and reveals the uneven pace of change in women's representation in politics. Yet, despite these constraints, the increasing diversification in how people live and how they manage their lives demonstrates that some people are crafting a variety of individual solutions to structural problems. Covering a significant breadth of material, the book presents comprehensive findings that use a variety of research methods-public opinion surveys, in-depth interviews, a life history, and participant observation-and, in doing so, look beyond Japan's perennially low rankings in gender equality indices to demonstrate the diversity underneath, questioning some of the stereotypical assumptions about women in Japan.

Contents:

Introduction : changing women's and men's lives in Japan / Gill Steel

1. Women's work at home and in the workplace / Gill Steel

2. Busy, happy, and withdrawn : Japanese women's constrained leisure choices / Mito Akiyoshi

3. Why women won't wed / Kumiko Nemoto

4. Working women's husbands as helpers or partners / Yuko Ogasawara

5. The politics of care and community : women and civil society in Japan / Linda Hasunuma

6. The "silent majority" speaks out : conservative women defending convention / Kimiko Osawa

7. Women and the Liberal Democratic Party in transition / Yuki Tsuji

8. Tokyo's first female governor breaks the steel ceiling / Susan Pavloska

9. "Life" as a political agenda / Hiroko Takeda

10. One size fits all? The implications of differences in regional fertility for public policy / Mayumi Nakamura

11. Japan's womenomics diplomacy / Liv Coleman

12. Japan's growing base of women in elected office / Sherry Martin

13. Staffing the state with women / Gregory W. Noble

14. Changing legislature, changing politics : quotas, electoral systems, and political representation / Yoshiaki Kobayashi and Yuta Kamahara.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472124602

0472124609

OCLC:

1076274717