| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1997: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The big difference between German and Japanese textile industries is the ratio of men to women. In contrast to the Japanese workforce of which 80% is women, the Germany one has remained for a long time less than 50%. Especially among weavers, the percentage of women to men constituted only 30%.
In order to clarify the causes of disparity, this paper focuses on the textile industry from the period of proto industrialization to modern times and the gendered meaning given to textile works. In Germany the domestic textile industry as a side business of individual farmer households developed into the main work done by all family members. By contrast, in Japan, it remained solely a female side job which contributed to the family economy. The German domestic industry took the form of handycrafts combined with a certain occupational certification, or it was organized as a masculinized work with females and children as assistants. In Japan, there were expert female weavers, but they didn't do their work as an established profession. The time of mechanization and the introduction of new technology depended on whether or not the gendered character of the work was male or female.
In the next part of this paper focuses on how labor forces were engendered through analyzing discourses in the process of enacting factory laws. Both in Germany and Japan the differences between women, who had to be protected, and men, who had no necessity of protection, were constructed, i.e.physically weak/strong, weak will/sprit of unity, dependant and ignorant/independent, housework/skill and technique, mother of nation/solider. As the result of this differentiation, state intervention into women's body and morals was legitimatized. The factory laws contributed to defining a gender suitable in the age of nation state and modern industrialization and helped to create engendered state, social, economic and working orders.
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