Women, Mothers, and Work

In this paper, I discuss the changing economic situation of women in the United States and draw some parallels between the American experience and that in Japan. Although the purpose of this paper is not to conduct a comparative study, I will draw parallels I see betweens the American and Japanese experience. Because there are important cultural and historical differences between the two countries, there is a tendency to emphasize the distinctive nature of the labor force experiences of women. I will argue here that the differences are more apparent than real. There is a geat deal to learn on current labor force trends of Japanese women from the twentieth century history of American women.