Unit 6: Gender Equality - Looking Back

The status of women in Japan is complex and cannot be characterized in simple terms. Slowly, there is a growing number of professional women and professional women's associations. More women continue to work after getting married and having children. However, many companies have separate programmes for women, usually non-career development, and follow practices that would be considered discriminatory in other societies. For a typical couple, the female spouse is still generally expected to do all of the cleaning, cooking, and other chores, whether she is working or not. Single women are said to be enjoying their lives, spending much money on travel abroad and shopping. Housewives are active in networking themselves for various objectives, for example volunteer activities, community services, recycling activities, study groups, and many others. The traditional Japanese value of “good wife, good mother’ is changing. Unlike other countries where a couple is the usual social unit, in Japan it is typical for only the husband to be invited to business gatherings or to weddings for company employees. Exceptions are frequently made for foreign visitors depending on the occasion, but wives should not take their exclusion as a personal insult..