Historical Study on the Transformation of Women's Working Environment at Tomioka Silk Mill

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01789
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07070:Economic history-related
• Research Institution: Hosei University
• Principal Investigator: Enoki Kazue 法政大学, 大原社会問題研究所, 教授 (90466813)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 女性労働 / 製糸業 / 富岡製糸場

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This reserch depicts the intertwined histories of women’s labor and the economic development of modern Japan through the lens of the silk reeling industry. By exploring the shifts in governmental control, capital ownership, and gendered working conditions at the Tomioka Silk Mill (in operation from 1872 to 1987), I reevaluate women’s industrial working environments within broader trends in scholarship on global history. Tracing the working lives of women connected to this mill demonstrates not only the international connections created by the global silk industry, but also the development of modern Japanese capitalism and historical shifts in labor policies.

Free Research Field

労働史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、国際的な労働史研究の新潮流を踏まえ、日本の女性労働史を再検討するものである。具体的には、近代日本の経済発展を底辺で支えた製糸業に焦点を当て、多くの女性労働者を雇用し続けた製糸工場の代表的存在である富岡製糸場の事例から、女性労働環境の歴史的変遷を明らかにした。
これは、「女性活躍」が求められる現在、女性の働き方がどのように変遷してきたのかを正しく理解することにつながるものといえよう。