Social Science Japan Journal 9:91-102 (2006)
© 2006 Oxford University Press
Survey Article |
From Mothers of the Nation to Global Civil Society: The Changing Role of the Japanese Women’s Movement in Globalization
Ilse LENZ is a Professor specializing in gender, feminism and politics and gender and work at the Faculty of Social Science and serves as an adjunct in the Faculty of East Asian Studies of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Her recent publications include Reflexive Körper? Zur Modernisierung von Sexualität und Reproduktion (Reflexive Bodies: The Modernization of Sexuality and Reproduction), edited with Lisa Mense and Charlotte Ullrich, Opladen: Leske+Budrich (2003); and ‘Globalization, Varieties of Gender Regimes, and Regulations for Gender Equality at Work’ in Gendering the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Heidi Gottfried et al., London: Palgrave (2006).
She can be reached at the Faculty of Social Sciences Ruhr-University Bochum GC 04, 44 801 Bochum, Germany, or by e-mail at ilse.lenz{at}rub.de.
Historically, modern women’s movements have developed in the context of the nation. In Japan, the radical ‘lib’ movement after 1970 criticized the image of national hegemonial femininity centered on the mother and housewife behind the ‘export production front’ and transcended national representations of femininity and gender. In the early 1990s, the women’s movements underwent four further changes: they turned from ‘women’s issues’ to the gender concept, developed an international orientation and networks, intensified knowledge politics in preparation for the coming information society, and engaged in advocating political and legal change. These changes are critical dimensions of the transformation and internationalization of this social movement. From mothers of the nation, Japanese women activists have moved on to become citizens both in the regional and in the global context.