Changing Sexual Division of Labor in Postwar Japan

The Changing Sexual Division of Labor in Postwar Japan

the double barrier against employment of women

TANAKA Sigeto (tsigeto(AT)nik.sal.tohoku.ac.jp)
Kazoku Syakaigaku Kenkyu (Japanese Journal of Family Sociology, ISSN 0916-328X), 8: p.151-161, 208 (July 1996).

Key Words: sexual division of labor, female full-time worker, time-series data

Abstract

This paper measures longitudinal changes in women's participation in employment. Excluding women employed in family enterprises, we focus on the modern sexual division of labor, the division between occupational and domestic labor.
In the 1948-94 figures of women's employment status based on the Japan Labor Force Survey, we observe an increasing number of part-time workers and a stable number of full-time workers.
Further details are given with personal histories of Japanese women collected through a 1985 nationwide survey. [1] Of those who worked full-time before marriage, only 20% remain working full-time at the childrearing stage (CRS). [2] Of those who were not employed at CRS, 20% enter full-time employment at post-CRS. [3] The numerical values of 20% are consistent among all cohorts. [4] More women enter part-time employment at post-CRS.
The findings imply a partial shift in the postwar sexual division of labor: Japanese women have poured into short-term or part-time employment, while there has been no change in their participation in long-term and full-time employment. This means a separate movement in the barrier against employment of women. To explain that movement, we should reject the accepted theory that the barrier is monolithic.

This is the English summary from Japanese Journal of Family Sociology, 8: p.208 (July 1996).
Offprint of the paper (in Japanese) is available through direct correspondence with the author.
Contents and tables of the paper are translated into English as follows:

1. Perspective

2. Theories

(1) Housewifezation theory

(2) Egalitarianism theory

(3) Restricted egalitarianism theory

3. Women's employment status

(1) The number of housewives

(2) The number of Part-time and full-time workers

4. Analysis concerning life-stages

(1) Consern life-stages

(2) Indexes

Childrearing stage (CRS)
post-CRS

(3) Data

(4) Results

CRS
post-CRS

5. Conclusion and remaining issue

Tables

Table 1: Women's employment status

                                                              percentage       adjusted proportion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
                                                        employee         |
year  total  ( N /    agric-  self-    not     --------------------------+   u /     p /     f /
             10000)   ulture   emp.   emp.(u)   part-time(p) full-time(f)| (u+p+f) (u+p+f) (u+p+f)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
1948  100.0  (2847)    29.1     7.0      52.9             11.0           |    .828        .172 
1950  100.0  (2887)    30.4     8.0      51.2             10.4           |    .831        .169 
1955  100.0  (3155)    26.1    12.8      46.0        1.7         12.3    |    .767    .029    .205
1960  100.0  (3370)    19.6    13.2      46.4        1.7         17.3    |    .710    .026    .264
1965  100.0  (3758)    14.7    11.5      50.0        2.2         20.5    |    .688    .030    .282
1970  100.0  (4060)    10.9    11.6      50.7        3.2         23.1    |    .658    .042    .300
1975  100.0  (4344)     7.4    10.8      55.0        4.6         21.6    |    .678    .056    .266
1980  100.0  (4591)     5.9    11.4      53.3        5.6         23.2    |    .649    .068    .283
1985  100.0  (4863)     4.8    10.8      52.6        6.8         24.3    |    .628    .082    .290
1990  100.0  (5178)     3.9     9.7      51.0        9.7         25.0    |    .595    .113    .292
1994  100.0  (5366)     3.1     7.9      51.3       12.1         25.0    |    .580    .136    .283
-------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------

Based on Rodoryoku Chosa (The Labor Force Survey) by the Office of the Prime Minister, Japan.

Table 2: Hypotheses

--------------------------------------------------------
                       expected changes in indexes
 hypotheses      --------------------------------------
                    If       IIf        IIp      IIu
--------------------------------------------------------
Housewifezation    down      down       up        up   
Participation       up        up        up       down  
Restricted        stable    stable      up       down  
--------------------------------------------------------

If: continuity of full-time work, at the childrearing stage (CRS).
IIf: enter full-time work, at the post-CRS.
IIp: enter part-time work, at the post-CRS.
IIu: remain not employed, at the post-CRS.

see equations (3) (4).

Table 3: Overview of the data of Japanese women's personal histories

The data was collected through a 1985 nationwide survey, named Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) survey. 2171 samples were drew at random from the female population born between Nov. 1, 1915 and Oct. 31, 1965 inclusive. The interview was conducted from Nov. 1985 through Feb. 1986. 1474 valid answers were collected (67.3% of the all sample).

Table 4: Occupational categories

Full-time: regularly employed
Part-time: temporary worker; part-time worker; pieceworker
Not work
Self-employed: manager; family worker; agriculural worker

Table 5: Cohort and the year of events

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cohort                      graduate   birth of her last child  the last child was 13
(age at        born    N   ----------  -----------------------  ---------------------
the survey)                 Q1    Q3   valid N(%)   Q1    Q3    valid N(%)   Q1    Q3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1920 (60's)  1915-25  199  1932  1938  179 (90.0)  1949  1955   179 (90.0)  1962  1968
1930 (50's)  1925-35  336  1943  1949  296 (88.1)  1957  1963   294 (87.5)  1970  1976
1940 (40's)  1935-45  326  1954  1960  307 (94.2)  1966  1972   238 (73.0)  1978  1983
1950 (30's)  1945-55  368  1966  1971  333 (90.5)  1976  1982    16 ( 4.3)  1983  1985
1960 (20's)  1955-65  229* 1977  1981   88 (38.4)  1983  1984     0 ( 0.0)    -     -
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*: 16 students are excluded (same as Table 6).
Q1: the first quartile (25 parcentile),
Q3: the third quartile (75 parcentile).

Table 6: Their first occupation before marriage (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  part-time              self-employed
cohort   full-  ------------  not   -----------------------   total   (N)
         time   temp.  piec.  work  manag.  family.  agric.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1920    38.0    1.6    1.6   30.5    6.4     2.7     19.3    100.0  (187)
 1930    41.4    2.5    1.9   29.6    1.5     5.6     17.6    100.0  (324)
 1940    66.1    4.7    0.6   19.3    1.6     2.8      4.7    100.0  (316)
 1950    84.2    2.3    0.6    7.9    0.8     3.4      0.8    100.0  (355)
 1960    84.0    6.2    0.0    5.3    1.3     1.3      1.8    100.0  (225)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
total    64.1    3.4    0.9   18.1    2.0     3.3      8.2    100.0 (1407)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 7: Occupation at CRS (when their last child were born) (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                part-time                 self-employed      
cohort  full-  ------------  not   ------------------------  total    (N)
        time   temp.  piec.  work  manag.  family.  agric.  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1920    9.0    1.8   1.8    52.1    1.8     7.2     26.3    100.0   (167)
 1930    9.8    1.4   2.8    57.0    2.4     6.3     20.3    100.0   (286)
 1940   10.8    3.4   4.1    63.5    5.1     8.4      4.7    100.0   (296)
 1950   16.0    4.0   4.0    61.8    2.8     8.0      3.4    100.0   (325)
 1960   22.1    4.7   0.0    65.1    2.3     2.3      3.5    100.0   ( 86)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
total   12.6    2.9   3.1    59.9    3.1     7.2     11.2    100.0  (1160)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 8: Occupation at post-CRS (when their last child were 13) (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                part-time                self-employed      
cohort  full-  ------------  not   ------------------------  total    (N)
        time   temp.  piec.  work  manag.  family.  agric.  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1920   18.6    1.8   4.2    36.5    4.2     9.6     25.1    100.0  (167)
 1930   21.7    8.4   4.2    37.4    4.5     8.7     15.0    100.0  (286)
 1940   20.3   19.9   6.9    30.7    5.2    10.8      6.1    100.0  (231)
 1950   20.0   26.7   6.7    40.0    0.0     6.7      0.0    100.0  ( 15)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
total   20.5   11.0   5.2    35.1    4.6     9.6     14.2    100.0  (699)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 9: Occupation at CRS, only those who worked full-time before marriage (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------
        full-  part-time[p]  not    self-employed [s]                      |
cohort  time   ------------  work  ------------------------  total   (Nf)  |   If
         [f]   temp.  piec.  [u]   manag.  family.  agric.                 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------
 1920   15.3    1.7   3.4    52.5    1.7     6.8     18.6    100.0   ( 59) |  .209
 1930   17.9    0.9   1.8    67.9    2.7     4.5      4.5    100.0   (112) |  .202
 1940   14.7    2.6   5.3    65.8    5.3     4.2      2.1    100.0   (190) |  .167
 1950   17.8    3.7   4.5    63.6    1.9     5.9      2.6    100.0   (269) |  .199
 1960   25.7    4.1   0.0    64.9    1.4     2.7      1.4    100.0   ( 74) |  .271
---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------

see equation (3), note (14).
Independence test between cohort and If: chi2=3.4, df=4, p>0.1 .

Table 10: Occupation at post-CRS, only those who didn't work at CRS (%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------
        full-  part-time[p]  not    self-employed [s]                      |
cohort  time   ------------  work  ------------------------  total   (Nf)  |   IIf   IIp   IIu
         [f]   temp.  piec.  [u]   manag.  family.  agric.                 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------
 1920   19.5    3.4   3.4    66.7    3.4     3.4      0.0    100.0   ( 87) |  .210  .074  .716
 1930   18.0    9.9   4.3    60.9    0.6     5.0      1.2    100.0   (161) |  .193  .153  .653
 1940   18.7   22.7   6.0    44.0    1.3     5.3      2.0    100.0   (150) |  .204  .314  .482
---------------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------

see equation (4), notes (14) (17).
Independence test between cohort and (IIf, IIp, IIu): chi2=23.0, df=4, p<0.01 .
Independence test between cohort and IIf: chi2= 0.1, df=2, p>0.1 .

Duplication in any form without the author's permission is forbidden.

SSM Survey

TANAKA Sigeto (tsigeto(AT)nik.sal.tohoku.ac.jp)
Last updated 2002-04-22.