ABSTRACT

The women were born between 1950 and 1959, and their families might have experienced hardships from the postwar period or other kinds of difficulties, which would have shaped the endurance level of these women. Professional women in their fifties are the initial beneficiaries of Japan's economic growth during the 1960s and 1970s. The postwar period was tough on most families, both in socioeconomic as well as in emotional terms. Despite the defeat during the war, the informants were growing up in a time when there was a strong motivation to rebuild the country, the American Occupation of Japan ended in 1952 and overcome the legacy of defeat. Women like Kawamori-san and Imagawa-san aimed high and digressed from the conventional path of housewifery and motherhood. Most of these women had to give up getting married and having children for the sake of staying on the career track, although others did not.