Women In Changing Japan - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891580190 ISBN 13: 9780891580195

Publisher: Westview Press, 1976

When one thinks of Japanese women, the eisha and submissive housewife come to mind. These were women living by a rigid, traditional feminine ideal, which defined woman as a being always dependent on man, a practice widely followed until the end of World War II. Japan's defeat and the subsequent American occupation was instrumental in re-defining woman for the first time as a legal being, a person with the right to vote, to hold office, to own property, and entitled to divorce. But since law is not always identical with social practice, this book deals with women in a number of occupational categories to ascertain to what degree change is a reality and not wishful thinking. How far have Japanese women today diverged from the traditional ideal? This is the question which twelve American women address in this volume. Each chapter is based on interviews with women in a different category.

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