Read more
As Japan shifted from an agricultural country before 1950 to an industrialized nation in less time than any other developed country, women felt the pressure of the shift. Husbands worked longer hours, leaving all the household chores and child rearing to their wives while fulfilling their responsibilites as corporate soldiers. The economy was fueled by a diligent, well-educated, low-paid workforce, but gender role division became even more rigid. Household incomes rose and improvement in areas such as diets, transportation, and leisure were made; modern appliances also made it possible for mothers to have part-time jobs. But pollution also rose, as did prices, and crowded living conditions began to impinge on family life. Tanaka, who has spent many years looking back at her country from an American perspective, examines marriage, motherhood, employment, independence, women's movements, and old age for women in Japan over the last 50 years.
List of contents
Introduction
Marriage
Wives
Divorce in Japan
Mothers' Children
Daughters: Young Women Today
Women and Work
Divorce in Japan
Women's Independence and Old Age
Wuman Ribu and the Women's Movement in Japan
Women and Political Power
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the author
YUKIKO TANAKA is a professional writer and translator. She has published This Kind of Woman: Ten Stories by Japanese Woman Writers, 1960-1976 (1982), Live and To Write: Selections by Japanese Woman Writers, 1913-1938 (1987) and Unmapped Territories: New Women's Fiction from Japan (1991).
