Dilemmas of Japanese Professional Women

Abstract

Despite advanced industrialization, Japanese professional women have been excluded from responsible positions in most private industries. They are placed on a career track separate from male employees and discriminated against in wages, promotion and retirement. Most working women, however, take this differential treatment for granted and view their employment as a temporary stage before marriage or child birth. This acceptance is possible because of (1) the high cultural value placed on motherhood and collective goal achievement, and (2) the housewife's unchallenged authority at home, which discourage women from pursuing an independent career. In addition, (1) the norms of rewarding continuous employment (that is, promotion and wage based on length of service—nenko joretsu) and (2) the stress on group loyalty (as expressed by the long overtime put in by workers and active participation in the company's social activities) virtually deny women an option to combine familial and career roles. The homeoriented majority hinders the formation of effective public opinion advocating fairemployment practice, thus perpetuating the status quo of the sexual division of labor.

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