Gendered constructions of the social value of handicrafts

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K12608
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 80030:Gender studies-related
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Yamasaki Akiko 奈良女子大学, 生活環境科学系, 教授 (30571070)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: ジェンダー / 手芸 / 手作り品

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project aims to provide a historical examination of the processes of production and consumption of handicrafts and to identify the following issues surrounding handicrafts from a gender perspective, with a focus on discourses.
Firstly, that craft activities have always offered the option of earning/not earning, the former being encouraged as a domestic hobby and the latter as a means of livelihood, linked to and controlled by the mobilization of women into the market economy. Second, the demand for social participation through handicrafts as a hobby has been controlled by a discourse of free social participation for women. Thirdly, the current boom in handicrafts has not changed much from the valorization of handicrafts in the past, and reclaims women in an ideology of consumption, while blurring the value of handicrafts.

Free Research Field

ジェンダー論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、ジェンダー化されたものづくりの現場や流通、生産／消費、それをとりまく言説の歴史を追い、近代から現代まで続くものづくりの根底にあるジェンダー構造の一端を明らかにしている。その構造は、様々な手作りの現場の格差を生み、また稼げないものを女性化し、女性化された領域に女性等を参入させる力を孕んでいる。この構造に言及することにより、ものづくりの現場に遍在し、組織される言説のあり方を問い、公正な語りや展望を示唆することができ、今後の様々な生産の現場のジェンダー平等に寄与することができる。