Gendered Trajectories: Women, Work, and Social Change in Japan and Taiwan

Gendered Trajectories explores why industrial societies vary in the pace at which they reduce gender inequality and compares changes in women's employment opportunities in Japan and Taiwan over the last half-century. Japan has undergone much less improvement in women's economic status than Taiwan, despite its more advanced economy and greater welfare provisions. The difference is particularly puzzling because the two countries share many institutional practices and values.

Drawing on historical trends, survey statistics, and personal interviews with people in both countries, Yu shows how country-specific organizational arrangements and industrial policies affect women's employment. In particular, the conditions faced by Japanese and Taiwanese women in the workplace have a profound effect on their labor force participation at critical points in their lives. Women's lifetime employment decisions in turn shape the divergent trajectories in gender equality.

Few studies documenting the development of women's economic lives are based on non-Western societies and even fewer adopt a comparative perspective. This perceptive work demonstrates and underscores the importance of understanding gender inequality as a long-term, dynamic social process.

Author: Wei-Hsin Yu
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 02/26/2009
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780804760096

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 04/10/2009 pg. 17
Choice 02/01/2010
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2009 pg. 110

About the Author
Wei-hsin Yu is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.