Gender Role Attitudes: An Examination of Cohort Effects in Japan

• Author: Rick Wolford,Lauren Johnson,Akiko Yoshida,Martin Piotrowski
• Date: 01 August 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12577
• Published date: 01 August 2019

M P University of Oklahoma

A Y University of Wisconsin-Whitewater∗

L J  R W University of Oklahoma∗∗

Gender Role Attitudes: An Examination of Cohort

Effects in Japan

Objective: This study examines cohort differ-

ences 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 pre-

dict 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 employ-

ment and a gender-based division of labor

were signicantly less traditional for later born

cohorts. However,younger cohorts born in 1960

and after were not signicantly different in their

attitudes from the cohort born in the 1950s.

Department of Sociology, 780 Van Vleet Oval, Kaufman

Hall, Room 331, Norman, OK 73019-2033

(piotrows@ou.edu).

∗Department of Sociology, Criminology,and Anthropology,

Laurentide Hall, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,800

W. Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190-1790.

∗∗Department of Sociology, 780 VanVleet Oval, Kaufman

Hall, Room 331, Norman, OK 73019-2033.

Key Words: gender, gender roles, history, Japan, marital

roles, motherhood.

Conclusion: This study suggests the strong

impact of ideological shifts and mothers’ home-

making role (experienced in one’s formative

years) on gender role attitudes. It points to the

important and lasting inuence of structural

contexts on attitudes and hence cohort effects.

Implications: This study contributes to our

understanding of attitudinal change (and stag-

nation) toward gender roles and has policy

implications for Japan and other countries

characterized by low marriage and fertility

rates.

I

In comparison to other postindustrial countries,

attitudes toward the gender-based division

of labor and wife’s employment remain rela-

tively traditional in Japan (Lee, Tus, & Alwin,

2010; Raymo, Park, Xie, & Yeung,2015; Tsuya,

Bumpass, Choe, & Rindfuss, 2012). This is the

case even though some theories, such as the sec-

ond demographic transition (Lesthaeghe, 2014),

predict a convergence toward increasingly

egalitarian attitudes in parts of the developed

world. Although cross-national differences in

gender role attitudes have been studied (e.g.,

Boehnke, 2011), much of the current literature

on attitudinal change toward gender roles (or

lack thereof) relies heavily on evidence from

Western societies.

The persistence of traditional views toward

the gendered division of labor within house-

holds, however, is not unique to Japan. South

Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (August 2019): 863–884 863

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12577

864 Journal of Marriage and Family

Korea is similar in this regard (Choe & Rether-

ford, 2009), and even in the United States

gender role attitudes have changed little since

the mid-1990s after decades of a consistent

linear trend toward egalitarian attitudes (Cotter,

Hermsen, & Vanneman, 2011). Attitude change

thus cannot be explained in terms of a unilinear

process resulting inevitably in a universal end

state but, rather, must recognize path depen-

dency produced by the interaction of global

forces and country-specic institutions (Ingle-

hart & Baker, 2000; Zaidi & Morgan, 2017).

Furthermore, persistent traditionalism should

not be attributed solely to culturally specic

inuences (such as Confucianism), as Japanese

people’s views have oscillated between more

and less traditional orientation over time (e.g.,

Choe, Bumpass, Tsuya, & Rindfuss, 2014).

Japan has undergone dramatic political, eco-

nomic, cultural, and demographic shifts since

the early 20th century (Lee et al., 2010), and in

tandem with its (changing) political agenda the

Japanese government actively propagated the

“proper” form of family and gender relations

through laws, education, employment and tax

systems, and other mediums (e.g., Koyama,

2014; Roberts, 2002; Uno, 2005; White, 2002).

Japan’s historical trajectory implies, therefore,

that childhood (and later life) experiences are

likely to differ distinctly by cohort, leading to

concomitant differences in attitudes toward gen-

der roles. In this article, we hypothesize about

impacts of cohort membership on attitudes

toward wife’s employment and the gendered

division of labor within (heterosexual) marriage

and consider how differences in the broader

societal milieu may be associated with such

cohort differences.

We test our hypotheses using data on nation-

ally representative pooled samples from eight

waves of the Japanese General Social Survey

(from 2000 to 2012), employing a hierarchical

age-period-cohort (HAPC) model (Yang, 2008;

Yang & Land, 2008), which allows us to disen-

tangle the potentially confounding inuences of

age, period, and cohort effects. We categorize

“cohort” according to shared experiences of

signicant historical events and aim to identify

which social contexts relate to liberalization of

(or stasis in) people’s attitudes by considering

cohort differences in the broader societal milieu.

Our study contributes to three main areas

of scholarship. First, despite the Japanese gov-

ernment’s efforts to promote gender equality

and nontraditional gender roles, the gendered

division of labor persists in most marriages,

and traditional views toward gender roles have

prevailed (Raymo, Park, Xie, & Yeung, 2015;

Tsuya et al., 2012). At the same time, the

percentage of young men and women in non-

regular or nonstandard employment has surged

(Piotrowski, Kalleberg, & Rindfuss, 2015;

Raymo & Shibata, 2017; Yu,2012), and this has

made the male-breadwinner/female-homemaker

model increasingly unattainable for many of

the younger cohorts (Cook, 2013; Yu, 2012).

Thus, understanding the circumstances behind

persistent traditionalism has policy implications

for Japan.

Second, similar to other East Asian countries

(such as South Korea) as well as parts of Europe,

Japan is currently dealing with issues related

to population decline and aging. Aside from

the growth of average life expectancy and low

immigration rates, the primary cause of this

demographic crisis is extremely low fertility

rates since the mid-1970s caused largely by the

surge in the never-married population (Min-

istry of Health, Labor & Welfare, 2003; Tsuya,

2015). A better understanding of factors associ-

ated with attitudes toward traditional marriage

(as dened by a gendered division of labor) in

Japan may therefore provide additional insights

into this increasingly ubiquitous demographic

phenomenon.

Last, Japan was the rst non-Western country

to join the league of “developed nations” and

shares many commonalities with the West. This

study should thus enhance our understanding of

how structural transformations relate to people’s

attitudes toward gender roles and contribute to

the general literature on gender role attitude

change, currently based mostly on studies of

Western societies.

A C T G

R

In studying and theorizing about attitudinal

changes toward family and gender relations,

sociodemographic explanations (Brooks &

Bolzendahl, 2004; Mason & Lu, 1988) and

ideational and cultural change perspectives

(Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004; Inglehart & Baker,

2000; Surkyn & Lesthaeghe, 2004) under-

score the importance of impacts of macro-level

changes in social and cultural contexts on indi-

vidual attitudes. Sociodemographic studies view