Housewives of Japan An Ethnography of Real Lives and Consumerized Domesticity

by Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra

• ISBN13: 9781137523907
• ISBN10: 1137523905
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-07-09
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Women in postwar Japan have never felt completely free from the social role and cultural concept of the housewife. Drawing on a unique ethnographic inquiry, Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni explores the complexities of the relationship between socially and culturally constructed roles bestowed on Japanese women and their real lives. With a novel approach to the use of the Internet and email in the production of ethnographic knowledge, this book gives voice to the lives and thoughts of "professional housewives."

Author Biography

Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni is Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Table of Contents

PART I: A COLLABORATIVE QUEST FOR UNDERSTANDING 'SENGYO SHUFU'
Intertext I
Entering the Field: Joining Mariko's Introspective Journey
Intertext II
The Postwar 'Professional Housewife' and the Japanese State
PART II: THE WOMEN OF ROYAL HEIGHTS
Intertext III
On 'Naturally' Becoming Housewives
Intertext IV
'Guarding the House': Men as Breadwinners, Women as Housewives
Intertext V
A New Housewife Is Born? Discourses of Class and Change in Royal Heights
PART III: HOUSEWIVES AS WOMEN IN POST-BUBBLE JAPAN
Intertext VI
The New Happy Housewife of Post-Bubble Japan
Intertext VII
Wrapping up: Housewives as the 'Winners'?
Intertext VIII