Abstract
Reviewed by: Hilary J. Holbrow, Sociology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA DOI: 10.1177/0730888417697210
Although the labor market participation rate of Japanese women now surpasses that of U.S. women, Japan lags far behind nearly all other postindustrial societies in women’s representation in management. In 2014, women were 11.4% of managers in Japan, compared with 29.0% in Germany and 43.7% in the United States. Why Japan remains such an outlier in terms of workplace gender inequality is a question of longstanding interest in comparative sociology and the sociology of work and organizations.
To examine Japanese workplace gender inequality and its causes, Nemoto conducted fieldwork at five major firms, where she interviewed 39 female and 25 male employees. The first three chapters of her book introduce the institutional environment of the Japanese workplace, situate Japan’s workplace gender inequality in international comparison, and describe the study setting. Chapters 4 through 7 analyze Nemoto’s original interview data. Chapter 4 focuses on seniority pay, track hiring, and family allowances and their effects on gender inequality. Chapter 5 investigates employees’ own gender attitudes, Chapter 6 the custom of long work hours, and Chapter 7 women’s experiences of sexual harassment. Chapter 8 concludes with the author’s recommendations for reform.
Chapter 6 is where the interlocking forces that depress female representation in management appear in sharpest relief. We learn that nearly all workers on the career track are expected to work an astronomical number of hours. Thirteen-hour work days are standard, and longer days are not uncommon. Firms do not pay workers for all their overtime, but internal and external motivations still drive employees to work these extended hours, even without full compensation. Workers explain that they take meaning from their dedication to work, that they fear poor evaluations from supervisors if they go home early, and that they do not want to burden their coworkers by leaving work undone.
The firms in this study have generous policies that allow parents of young children to reduce their work hours, but these policies do not eliminate the disapprobation workers face for leaving work before 8 or 9 p.m. This presents women on the career track with a stark trade-off: Either they can forgo motherhood and work standard (long) hours, or they can reduce their hours to match daycare and school schedules and take themselves out of the running for management positions.
Costs of compliance with employer demands run high: Both male and female employees who work long hours report serious health consequences, sometimes requiring hospitalization. To a few (mostly male) informants, the toll their work takes on their health is not a sign of company dysfunction or even an undue personal burden, but a badge of pride and a source of meaning. Other informants (all female) do not wish to make these sacrifices and willingly accept noncareer track jobs. Such positions may be uninteresting and menial, but workers in these jobs state that at least they have time to find fulfillment outside of work, including in the realm of the family.
To the American or European reader, the options available to both male and female employees may seem deeply unappealing. Why do workers accept these conditions? What do their choices and actions mean to them? One strength of this book is that we hear answers to these questions in workers’ own words.
At the same time, there are also places where the book overreaches, particularly in its uncritical endorsement of what Nemoto describes as typical U.S. organizational practices and cultural attitudes. For example, to remedy the problem of “too few women at the top,” she recommends increasing the use of performance pay. This recommendation ignores a growing body of evidence casting doubt on the efficacy of performance pay as an equalizing tool (e.g., Azmat & Petrongolo, 2014; Castilla, 2008; Madden, 2012).
Nemoto further suggests that Japanese people and organizations should adopt an “assimilationist” feminism and abandon the ideology of separate spheres for men and women. While assimilationist feminism almost certainly boosts women’s opportunities for workplace advancement, Nemoto’s implication that this type of feminism is superior overall is a value judgment social science cannot assess. Simply emulating U.S. attitudes and practices is hardly a recipe for a family-friendly, gender-equal utopia. For all the inequalities of Japanese society and workplaces, they offer benefits to women and families that most workers in the United States can only dream of, including paid pregnancy and child-care leave, and high-quality public daycare.
The problematic recommendations arise when Nemoto extends beyond her data, which cannot answer questions about the relative merits of seniority and performance pay, much less the general impacts of assimilationist and separate spheres feminisms. But where the link between data and argument is tight, the book skillfully illuminates both general mechanisms that reinforce gender inequality and the specific gender dynamics of Japanese workplaces. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 would make excellent readings for courses on gender in the workplace, comparative labor, or culture in organizations.