2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The New Woman in Modern Nation States : A Comparative Study
| Project/Area Number |
11610223
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
社会学(含社会福祉関係)
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Konan Women's University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
MUTA Kazue Konan Women's Univ., Professor, 人間科学部, 教授 (80201804)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2001
|
| Keywords | the New Woman / nation state / gender / sexuality / Suffragist movement / sexuality / 良妻賢母 / シェンダー |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The New Woman" might be seen as a Western product, but in fact a new type of woman appeared in the East, in Japan, China and Korea, at nearly the same time as in the West. Although this New Woman did not arise indigenously and was certainly influenced by the West, she was notjust a carbon copy of her Western counterpart, but displayed distinct characteristics within the respective historical contexts. "
Although the New Woman phenomenon was not a media-produced illusion but the result of social change in Japanese modernization, the Japanese New Woman had little resources to survive. They appeared less than half a century after the beginning of Japan's modernization. With less industrialization and less democratization, and with middle class just having begun to form a social stratum, economic or social opportunities for women were severely limited. Few professional jobs were available, making it extremely hard for a woman to gain independence from father or husband. A suffragist movement did exist in Japan, but in contrast to the United States or Britain, it never gained any substantial political power.
Considering this context, the progressive and liberal attitude of the Japanese New Woman in the early 1 91 Os seems all the more remarkable. And yet, as discussed, the Japanese New Women showed an ambivalent attitude towards sexuality and marriage, judged from a contemporary point of view. The ambivalence arose in response to the traditional norms that had oppressed Japanese women for such a long time. The New Woman became new" in a specific way according to a distinct social and historical context within each society, not only in Japan but anywhere including the West. Their unique expression of "newness" fits precisely their way of struggle."
|
