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"Ogasawara treats women office workers not only as oppressed but as active players who express their dissatisfaction in highly nuanced public ways, engaging the hierarchies to their own ends, manipulating the dependencies of their male coworkers, and turning subordination on its head. Along the way, she slashes and burns a lot of old chestnut stereotypes about men, women, and work in Japan. A wonderful book."—Merry White, author of The Material Child
List of contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1.
The Japanese Labor Market and Office Ladies
2.
Why Office Ladies Do Not Organize
3.
Gossip
4.
Popularity Poll
5.
Acts of Resistance
6.
Men Curry Favor with Women
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: DATA AND METHODS
APPENDIX B: PROFILES OF SARARIMAN AND
OFFICE LADIES INTERVIEWED
APPENDIX C: PROFILES OF FIFTEEN OFFICE
LADIES AT TOZAI BANK
APPENDIX D: PROFILES OF INTERVIEWEES ON
VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT-GIVING
APPENDIX E: SUMMARY OF TELEPHONE
INTERVIEWS WITH SARARIMAN WIVES
REGARDING WHITE DAY
NOTES
GLOSSARY
REFERENCES
INDEX
About the author
Yuko Ogasawara is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Edogawa University.
Summary
In large corporations in Japan, much of the clerical work is carried out by young women known as 'office ladies' (OLs). They are exempt from the traditional lifetime employment and have few opportunities for promotion. This work exposes the ways that these women resist men's power, and why the men often subject themselves to the women's control.
