ABSTRACT
Japan went through rapid Westernization and industrialization in the latter half of the nineteenth century, became involved in a series of wars, starting with the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), and militarily expanded its territory into the Asian continent until the end of World War II. During this time, along with the ie (house) system discussed in the previous chapter, government ofcials considered a consistent gender policy necessary to modernization and the strengthening of the nation. Heavily inuenced by the ideology of the samurai (warrior) class of the feudal period, and by the Western gender ideology of the Victorian era, the so-called ryo¯sai kenbo (good wife, wise mother) ideology was made ofcial. This ideology dened the proper role for women as married, managing the household well, and wisely raising children (i.e., the next generation of citizens).1 That is, married women were to focus on domestic tasks and not take wage employment.2 Men, on the other hand, were expected to contribute to the nation as workers and soldiers. In other words, what we call today “traditional gender roles” – in which husbands take the breadwinning role and wives take care of home and children – were made the ideal and associated with social responsibilities. It was not just public education, government policies and laws,
and the mass media that instilled this ideology into the public mind. Interestingly, feminists and female private school educators supported the ideology, too, partly because education for girls3 was deemed important to them becoming “wise” mothers.4 During this time, many married women were actually working on farms and/or in wage employment.5 But women’s ability to manage the home and raise children came to be equated ideologically with true womanhood in the rst half of the twentieth century. I discussed in the previous chapter how the U.S.-driven reforms of the Occupational Period (1945-1952) included the reform of gender (and family) relations. Gender equality was guaranteed in the new constitution drafted by the U.S. Occupational Force. After the Occupation, however, the Japanese government set economic recovery and growth as the nation’s primary goal, and renewed propagation of a gendered division of labor.6 It was said to be patriotic for women to devote themselves to domestic tasks so that men could focus on employment, i.e., economic production. Subsequently, in the 1960s and 1970s, Japan’s economy grew. Many young people migrated to urban regions (including Tokyo) for employment, married, and settled down in cities and suburbs. Good income and living away from families of origin obliged or allowed many young married couples to pursue the socially idealized gender role allocation. The housewife role was elevated to a “profession,” as the popularized term sengyo¯ shufu (professional housewife) implied. The profession of housewife symbolized middle-class status, and Japan’s baby boomers (born in the late 1940s) stayed home as housewives in greater numbers than in previous cohorts.7
