Women in the Meiji and Taisho Periods in Japan

Paper Summary:

This paper is about the increase in freedom Japanese women experienced during the Meiji and Taisho periods in Japan and the subsequently greater role they had in both the family and the political life of the country. The paper explains how, unwittingly, the Samurai revolution contributed to women's greater liberation and how the combination of increased urbanization along with a higher degree of mobility tended to loosen the traditional strictures on women's physical and social mobility. The paper also points out how the increase in a Japanese middle-class after the Samurai revolution and their corresponding demands for more rights also contributed to greater freedoms for women. The paper makes it clear, however, that the status of Japanese women during this period was never close to being equal to that of Japanese men, but their social and political gains were significant.

From the Paper:

"The Meiji period, as Gordon outlines in Chapter Five, "The Samurai Revolution", began with a political revolution that returned the country to direct imperial rule under the Emperor Meiji and brought to an end the era of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The emperor took advantage of the restoration of his power to try to push Japan towards the West and to introduce Western concepts of modernization. The effect over the period of Meiji rule from 1868-1912 included the rise of a much larger and more powerful middle class in Japan. This came about in no small way because the samurai who lead the restoration understood that their own rising power " as well as that of the imperial house " was dependent upon the diminishment of power by the feudal lords."

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