Life in a Japanese Women's College: Learning to be Ladylike

by McVeigh,Brian J.

• ISBN13: 9780415144568
• ISBN10: 0415144566
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-17
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

One third of the Japanese female workforce are "office ladies" and their training takes place at the many women's colleges in Japan. Brian J McVeigh draws on his teaching experiences at one such institution, Takasu International College, to examine the cultural processes at work in the education of women. Life in a Japanese Women's College explores the educational philosophy of the college which aims to produce "ladylike" women. The processes utilized in this aim include: careful management of the body; "Japaneseness"; "internationalism"; and well-orchestrated school functions. This analysis of the college illustrates how the students are prepared for their future dual roles of employees and mothers. It sheds light on broader issues, demonstrating how women's junior college is part of a complex socioeconomic order.

Table of Contents

Series editor's preface
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note to reader
Abbreviations
List of figures and tables
Introduction: purposes, premises, and problems	p. 1
Mental acts as social behavior: reuniting body, mind, and practice	p. 21
The ethnomorality of etiquette: the cultural context of Takasu International College	p. 35
Cultivating "ladylike" and "international" women at Takasu	p. 60
Takasu as an institution	p. 85
Ceremonies of culture in a culture of ceremony	p. 119
Becoming an "office lady": engendering gender through the body	p. 146
Students: the politics of shyness and schooling	p. 172
Leaving college life and entering the adult world	p. 191
Conclusion: socialization, gender, schooling, and the state	p. 213
Notes	p. 221
Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 254
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