Women & the Economic Miracle - Gender & Work in Postwar Japan (Paper)

1. Auflage 1994
ISBN: 978-0-520-08920-4
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 21, 320 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 227 mm, Gewicht: 422 g

Reihe: California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy

This lucid, hard-hitting book explores a central paradox of the Japanese economy: the relegation of women to low-paying, dead-end jobs in a workforce that depends on their labor to maintain its status as a world economic leader. Drawing upon historical materials, survey and statistical data, and extensive interviews in Japan, Mary Brinton provides an in-depth and original examination of the role of gender in Japan's phenomenal postwar economic growth.

Brinton finds that the educational system, the workplace, and the family in Japan have shaped the opportunities open to female workers. Women move in and out of the workforce depending on their age and family duties, a great disadvantage in a system that emphasizes seniority and continuous work experience. Brinton situates the vicious cycle that perpetuates traditional gender roles within the concept of human capital development, whereby Japanese society "underinvests" in the capabilities of women. The effects of this underinvestment are reinforced indirectly as women sustain male human capital through unpaid domestic labor and psychological support.

Brinton provides a clear analysis of a society that remains misunderstood, but whose economic transformation has been watched with great interest by the industrialized world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brinton, Mary C.

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wirtschaftssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, Organisationssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Wirtschaftliche Globalisierung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Tables

List of Figures

A Note on Japanese Names

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Women in the Japanese and U.S. Economies

3. Human Capital Development Systems

4. The Evolution of a Gendered Employment System

5. Gendered Work Lives

6. Gendered Education

7. Conclusion 222
Appendix A. Research Design for the Three-City Study

Appendix B. Supplementary Tables

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mary C. Brinton is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago.