Rising suns, rising daughters : gender, class and power in Japan

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Rising suns, rising daughters : gender, class and power in Japan

Joanna Liddle and Sachiko Nakajima

White Lotus , Zed Books, 2000

  • : hbk
  • : pbk

Other Title

太陽の娘たち

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Note

Bibliography: p. 329-336

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Western interest in Japan has grown consistently since the war, but surprisingly little is known about Japanese women. This book explores the themes of gender and class by tracing the changing position of women through significant moments of history and into the contemporary period. Their story repudiates the commonly held view of the submissive Japanese woman, and shows how women have been active agents in constructing new identities both in family and public life. The energy of the women's liberation movement of the late twentieth century resonates with echoes of struggle and resistance from earlier times. Japan is a unique canvas on which these dramas have been played out. Japan has been a colonial power and has also been subject to early forms of colonisation, has been both an ally and an enemy of the west, and has moved from an inward-looking society to a major player in the global political economy. Using a new conceptual framework, the authors demonstrate how gender relations are crucially related to the construction of class, and show how women and gender relations are used as a resource in the struggle for power between nations. The contemporary material is based on detailed interviews, conducted over two decades, with women who have challenged the stereotypes normally attached to Japanese women and attained positions of influence in professional life. The authors weave together the voices and lives of these women with the analytical themes of the book. Their stories are powerful and sometimes moving, and they bring into focus the broader movements of history and culture within the experiences of individual women. The book offers an original approach to the contemporary issues of gender, class and global politics, and will appeal to both specialist and general readers.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Part I: Women and the Global Political Economy 1. The Women's Movement 2. Japan Enters Global Politics 3. Women and the Subordination of Japan 4. Creating a New Japanese Womanhood 5. Building a New Japan: Good Wives, Wise Mothers 6. Building a New Japan: Working Women 7. Conclusion to Part One Part II: Gender, Class and Power Before the Western Intrusions 8. The Bases of Power 9. Women and Class 10. The Rise of the Military Class 11. Civil War 12. Women's Position and Social Class 13. Conclusion Part III: Yearning for the Sky and the Stars 14. The New Woman 15. Militarist Expansionism 16. Defeat of the Militarist Project 17. The American Occupation 18. Conclusion Part IV: Gender, Class and Power 19. Class and the Reproduction of Power 20. Employment as a Field of Power 21. Education as a Field of Power 22. The Family as a Field of Power 23. Conclusion Part V: Becoming a Professional Woman in Japan: The Struggle for Change 24. Gendered Class Identities 25. Discourses of Gendered Class Identity 26. Regulatory Social Practices 27. Contradictions of Middle-Class Femininity 28. Conclusion Part VI: Becoming a Professional Woman: Achieving the Right to Compete 29. Changing Subjectivities 30. Changing Social Practice 31. Changing Subjectivities 32. Women in the New Heisei Era 33. Conclusion to Part Six Conclusion: Rising Daughters Bibliography

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