Gender Role Attitudes: An Examination of Cohort Effects in Japan

Abstract

Objective: This study examines cohort differences in attitudes toward women's roles within marriage in Japan. Background: Japan has undergone dramatic sociocultural shifts in the 20th century that have shaped childhood experiences differently by cohort. Sociodemographic perspectives predict cohort effects, which suggest the lasting impact of experiences during the formative years on attitudes. Method: This study employs a hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis and uses repeated cross-sectional data from the 2000 to 2012 Japanese General Social Survey (N = 31,912), a nationwide probability survey. Results: Among cohorts born before 1960, for both sexes, attitudes toward wife's employment and a gender-based division of labor were significantly less traditional for later born cohorts. However, younger cohorts born in 1960 and after were not significantly different in their attitudes from the cohort born in the 1950s. Conclusion:This study suggests the strong impact of ideological shifts and mothers' homemaking role (experienced in one's formative years) on gender role attitudes. It points to the important and lasting influence of structural contexts on attitudes and hence cohort effects. Implications: This study contributes to our understanding of attitudinal change (and stagnation) toward gender roles and has policy implications for Japan and other countries characterized by low marriage and fertility rates.

Marriage counterfactuals in Japan: Variation by gender, marital status, and time

“…First, although certain dimensions of marriage are viewed more positively among people who have never been married than those currently married, there has been far more negative change over time in perceptions of marriage among the former than the latter. Consistent with other research on attitudes in Japan (Choe et al 2014;Lee, Tufiș, and Alwin 2010;Piotrowski et al 2019), our findings suggest that ideas about marriage are changing. However, our research highlights the usefulness of examining perceptions of marital relationships among those who have not yet entered such unions (i.e., the never-married).…”

Cohort dynamics in relation to gender attitudes in China

“…First, Chinese adults scored higher for the two gender attitudes in the public sphere (the work and ability dimensions) than the two attitudes in the private sphere (the marriage and division of labor dimensions). This finding is consistent with attitudinal changes in other countries, for example, Japan (Piotrowski et al, 2019). Second, compared with the WB cohort, the PB cohort displayed a clear upward trend in egalitarian gender attitudes in the public sphere (the work and ability dimensions) but few changes in the private sphere (the marriage and division of labor dimensions), suggesting that radical gender discourses in the pre-reform era caused dramatic changes in women's lives in the public sphere but limited changes in the private sphere.…”

Nonstandard Employment, Gender, and Subjective Well‐Being in Japan

“…Women, however, have long been concentrated in nonstandard work and are more likely than men to prioritize the domestic sphere, thus limiting the potential negative implications of participation in insecure, unrewarding NSE for their SWB. We expect these gender differences to be particularly pronounced in Japan, where gender norms and attitudes change slowly and have lasting influences (Piotrowski et al, 2019;Raymo et al, 2015). Moreover, gender differences in relationships between NSE and SWB may also depend upon workers' marital status in Japan.…”

“…To this end, we examine gender differences in relationships between NSE and SWB in Japan, a country characterized by a relatively rigid labor market and entrenched male breadwinner-female homemaker norms (Piotrowski et al, 2019;Raymo et al, 2015). We pay particular attention to variation by workers' reasons for taking such work and by their marital status.…”