Policies to Harmonize Work and Family Life in Japan and the United States

Abstract

Equal employment policies in Japan and the United States were analyzed in depth in chapter two. On the one hand, the United States seems to have made greater inroads toward gender integration of occupations than other advanced countries, including Japan (O’Connor, Orloff and Shaver, 1999, 4–5). Women have made major strides in the educational arena and executive and professional occupations in the United States, aided by affirmative action and a well-developed legal apparatus to protect women against sex discrimination, as well as feminist advocacy efforts. In contrast to their Japanese sisters, whose participation in the labor force has been far more problematic, American women have tended to work full time and for most of their lives. They have done so with limited childcare support and in the absence of other state policies that might help to resolve the tensions between work and family responsibilities. As noted earlier, equity policy in the United States tended, particularly in the initial era of second wave feminism, to stress gender sameness. In more recent years, although these views have shifted, the U.S. system has proven resistant to providing special support for care giving and other primarily female family-related roles. In this chapter, the forces that have shaped two policies related to changing family needs, the successful passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 and the less successful effort to create a comprehensive national childcare policy, will be examined.