The Significance of Cooperation in Domestic Labor by Rural Women

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 農家女性の家事労働における共同化の意味
  • ノウカ ジョセイ ノ カジ ロウドウ ニ オケル キョウドウカ ノ イミ トチギケン 2 チク ノ キョウドウ スイジ ニ カンスル ジレイ チョウサ カラ
  • With a focus on the practice of cooperative cooking in two regions in Tochigi prefecture during the first half of Japan's high growth period
  • 栃木県2地区の共同炊事に関する事例調査から

Search this article

Abstract

This paper focuses on the practice of cooperative cooking in two regions in Tochigi Prefecture during the first half of Japans high growth period, and reexamines the significance of "cooperation" in domestic labor by rural women. At that time, cooperative cooking spread all over the country in the context of a movement for the improvement of living conditions. This paper focuses on the independent participation of rural women in cooperative cooking—women, who were considered the target of this "improvement".<br>In the 1950s, women working in large-scale farms in Uziie persuaded the town office to implement the practice of cooperative cooking in order to reduce their domestic labor during the farming season. This was a progressive undertaking that realized the communal centralization of cooking. Nevertheless, cooperative cooking faded out as farmers began to use agricultural machines. As the manual labor demanded of women decreased, they began returning to their housework.<br>The women of Kitsuregawa, an area with a higher subsistence farming population, also began cooperative cooking. During the farming season, they engaged in cooperative cooking in order to reduce domestic labor; however, on holidays they did so because they enjoyed the process. Thus, the practice of cooperative cooking was perpetuated. Because the women continued to cooperate when performing domestic labor, they were able to temporarily escape their severe daily working conditions and connect with each other beyond their "home". Hence, cooperative cooking provided them with an opportunity to work together. As a result, they succeeded to some extent in building labor conditions and social relations that were not necessarily based on the domestic labor of segmented family units, but rather on those that cut across these units.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top