Good Wife Wise Mother Analysis

I)

Hiratsuka Raicho (1886-1971) was a feminist and a founder of the “Bluestocking” magazine. She was also one of the founders of the New Woman Association. ++++Her contribution for the challenge of the gender norms that privileged men was the introduction of the law that was supposed to put man in the position of examined(Otsubo, 225,227)

“Good wife wise mother” is a “prescription for Japanese womanhood”, created before 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War (Uno, 38). This project of regulation of the woman role in the society and her incorporation in the state system can be seen as part of the Japanese government’s project for the modernization of the state

Shimizu Shikin (1868-1933) was a women’s rights activist and a writer. Participated in the

Shimizu Shikin’s essay “How determined are today’s women students?” is illustrative of women’s involvement. Though the theme of her work is the family and marriage, topics that one could consider to be related to womanhood, her approach is what important. She calls on female students, on their readiness to create changes seeing them as reformers (Shimizu, 230). She gives a choice not to marry and creates a direct link between woman and state by stating that “it is necessary to bear responsibilities on behalf of our fellow citizens and our nation”(Shimizu, 228;230). Another activist, Hiratsuka Raicho, was one of the leaders of the movement that aimed at re establishment of the women’s participation in politics and challenged the accepted gender norms by questioning the male privilege scientifically through the use of eugenics (Otsubo, 225). First, in spite of the restriction she still found the way to situate the movement in the politics. Secondly, she attempted to participate in the very creation of the gender normatives by asserting the “unfitness” of

Even though gender construction is universal process, situated in different societies and times it could give us a new look at some issues. For example, the relations between gender formation and space.

In this paper I would argue that Rokumeikan era was an important step towards reinvention of gender norms because it disrupted accepted space allocation. To do so, I’ll look into what changes the Meiji Restoration brought in the spatial dimension of home, interconnectedness or gender construction and space and how Rokumeikan challenged it.

Kathleen Uno in her work “Women and Changes in the Household Division of Labour” argues that that early Meiji policies aimed at the strengthening of the nation that brought changes in the household division of labour had resulted in the “emergence of a postwar domestic conception of womanhood”(Uno, 18). With the departure of man and children from the household, got stuck in the house. As in the many cases (especially middle-class and higher class) the house work meant reproductive work, it became the domain of womanhood. Of course, policies that were aimed at the men and children implied men’s fitness and suitability for productive work and thus “choose” them for the departure from home. However, women being linked to the domestic space reinforced the women’s role in the society, helped to maintain existing role