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The New Paradox for Japanese Women: Greater Choice, Greater Inequality
290 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2015
Well, for an academic book, this book is certainly a breath of fresh air in terms of clear, simple language. No postmodernist shit about "fluidity", "liquidity" and whatnot. The author essentially assembles a lot of statistical data which he proceeds to analyze and explain in terms of inequalities between men and women and among women. The analysis and the conclusions that the author of the books makes from the data he presents are often contestible and very rigidly "economical", as in not taking into account other, sociological or psycholgical factors enough, and at times downright weird, but this book does serve as a great introduction to the Japanese "kakusa shakai" or "inequal society".
Even if I couldn't always agree with the analysis, just looking at the huge amount of data and tables Tachibanaki provides in his book proves to be very informative. The fact that the book is written by an elderly Japanese academic can often be gleaned from his statements that often resemble casual sexism and are excessively authoritarian, but the author's heart seems to be in the right place and the book is strongly thematically united by its purpose to uncover discrimination against women and between women in Japan while giving a broad overview of the historical reasons and circumstances behind it, current trends and even some prognoses for the future. Overall, an interesting worthwhile read that will not leave you reading the same page for hours trying to decipher what the author actually wanted to say.
Even if I couldn't always agree with the analysis, just looking at the huge amount of data and tables Tachibanaki provides in his book proves to be very informative. The fact that the book is written by an elderly Japanese academic can often be gleaned from his statements that often resemble casual sexism and are excessively authoritarian, but the author's heart seems to be in the right place and the book is strongly thematically united by its purpose to uncover discrimination against women and between women in Japan while giving a broad overview of the historical reasons and circumstances behind it, current trends and even some prognoses for the future. Overall, an interesting worthwhile read that will not leave you reading the same page for hours trying to decipher what the author actually wanted to say.
September 21, 2019
More extensive review to come (it’s going to take some work treating the main arguments appropriately and in some cases rerunning data analyses), but the tldr is that the author does an incredible job ignoring the evidence to expound a backwards view on gender inequality. The policy recommendations flatly contradict the data he presents. It makes you wonder why he bothered.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews