Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/78850

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/bfhhs.160.l97

KEYWORDS : gender role attitude;double burden;caring role;caring-jobs

Previous studies suggest that Japanese women's attitude toward gender is one of the keys to understanding their obstinate resistance to gender equality in household work: on one hand, few women support existing restrictions on their participation in the labour market, yet on the other hand they are in favour of assigning themselves caring roles at homes. However, why women themselves support such a double burden norm of "working and caring" has not been adequately clarified. Using SSP2015 data and focusing on married women, this paper examines four hypotheses to investigate factors behind women's support for the "working and caring" norm. The first is the "household contribution hypothesis," which focuses on relative resources. It assumes that women's lower contribution to household income is associated with their greater support for the "working and caring" norm. The other three hypotheses -- the "education hypothesis," the "time availability hypothesis," and the "social evaluation hypothesis" -- focus on women's absolute resources. The social evaluation hypothesis assumes that if women are socially and economically evaluated through their jobs, they are more likely to reject the "working and caring" norm. It is a new hypothesis examined in this paper by looking at women's employment status, with a special focus on whether they work in caring-jobs or not. It can be imagined that if women use their caring skills in the labour market, they no longer adhere to take on a caring role at home. Results of my analysis generally support my hypotheses, except for the time availability hypothesis. Conditions such as lower contribution to the household income, lower level of education, irregular employment, and occupations other than caring-jobs go hand in hand with greater support by women for the "working and caring" than the "sharing both" norm.