Postwar Tran.iformationsofRyosai kenbo and Women'sMovements
It is hardly surprising that the aging male politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen who crafted postwar state and corporate policies still expected women to center their lives around housekeeping, childrearing, and submissiveness to husband and officials, much like the ryosai kenbo ideal of prewar years. But it is also important to note that even conservatives modified their vision of womanhood in the postwar era. For example, they have accepted greater participation of women in local affairs-as citizens and community officials concerned about local development, education, and pollution. They did not block the employment of married
women outside the home, although they constantly warned working wives and
mothers not to neglect their home responsibilities. Given the long working hours
of men and the scarcity of labor at present, even staunch supporters of female
domesticity condone, rather grudgingly, women's activities outside the home. The
alternative would have been unfilled jobs and impoverished local community life,
for there were low-level positions in the economy and polity that men were too
busy to occupy