Gendered Trajectories Women, Work, and Social Change in Japan and Taiwan [Hardcover]

Gendered Trajectoriesexplores 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.

Gendered Trajectoriesis a valuable contribution to our understanding of gender and social change. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, the author links institutions to individuals' experiences to explain why there is greater gender inequality in Japan than Taiwan, despite their similarities in patterns of industrialization. Gendered Trajectoriespresents an extraordinarily complete picture of women's employment patterns in Japan and Taiwan. Yu succeeds in providing a convincing explanation of why women's employment histories are so different in the two societies. Yu's rigorous, engaging, and thought-provoking analysis will make an important contribution to the study of gender, worklc