Work and Family Choices of Higher Educated Japanese Women : The Effects of Changing Labor Practices of Japanese Firms in the 90's and 2000's

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent patterns of work and family choices\r\namong university graduate women in Japan. The first half of the paper uses data from the National Fertility Survey of 2005 by ISSPR, to show that there are still more than seventy percent of women who are full-time housewives when their first child is one year old, and that the percentage has stayed relatively the same for different cohorts, despite the consecutive strengthening of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law and the Child Care\r\nLeave Law in the 90's and 2000's. In most developed countries, the number of married\r\nwomen with young children participating in the labor force has increased. The question\r\narises, why do many Japanese female university graduates quit working?\r\nFor the purposes of focusing on women in their early careers yet with solid work\r\nexperience, we created an in depth interview with seventeen university graduated women,\r\nwithin the age group of 26 to 33 years old, in the Tokyo metropolitan area by using a\r\nsnow bowl sampling method. The interviews were conducted from 2006 to 2008.\r\ nWe discovered that firm practices are the primary reason why women quit working. The women who challenged the career ladder, which was formerly accessible only to males, saw little time available for child bearing due to longer work hours and a high number of requirements. For others, it was difficult to plan on establishing future careers in their firms, since the female role model was rare. Other women were given traditional clerical assistant jobs. They thought the clerical work was uninteresting which resulted in them quitting their jobs early.\r\nAbout half of those interviewed were employed by long term employment, which\r\nwas formerly only open for male university graduates. One fourth of the women were\r\nemployed in clerical assistant work, a traditional women's work realm, and one fourth of the women were employed in the public sector through examination placement.\r\nAmong those who worked for private enterprise, we found many women who said\r\nit was not easy to balance work and family. Whether or not their firms have a familyfriendly\r\nculture was important for keeping employment status after childbirth. Apart from working traits, factors that also affected whether a women quit their job was the mother role, inc luding whether women think it is better to stay at home when children were of a\r\nyoung age. Their own mother's attitude towards work also seemed to affect the daughter's attitude. Availability of familial support, mostly the support of grandparents, was also of importance in caring for children and keeping employment. The majority of females had little expectation towards their husbands’ role in child care.本稿は，日本の若年女性労働が1990年代から2000年代にかけての規制改革変化，統計が示す実態変化を踏まえた上で，なぜ雇用機会均等法や育児介護休業法における規制強化にかかわらず，意欲の高い女性が出産を乗り越えられないのか，一定の職場経験を経た26－33歳の大卒女性の聞き取り調査から明らかにする。第13回出生動向基本調査の特別集計から，出産を乗り越えて就業継続する女性の割合は，若いコホートでも依然として低いままということが示される。また統計調査から，総合職という働き方は女性の働き方としては依然として少数派ということも示される。聞き取り調査の対象は，優秀大卒女性層であり，大企業や公務部門に勤務する総合職女性が中心である。しかし出産後も仕事を\r\n継続しているケースは少数であった。総合職であっても，男性と異なる配置から将来見通しが持てなかったり，一般職として採用され，仕事の発展性が見えなかったりして離職を考える者は少なくない。一方，完全に男女均等な職場に勤務する女性は，仕事意欲ややりがい感は高いものだったが，従来の男性の働き方が標準であるために，出産による労働時間制約は取り戻せないダメージをキャリアに与えると予想して家族形成を躊躇していた。規制強化がすすむ正社員においても，両立支援策は成功しているとはいえず，規制の緩い非正規雇用の雇用が拡大していることから課題は一層大きい。企業慣行の他に，出産離職に影響するのは，親族からの子育て支援が受けられかどうかの見通し，子供が幼いうちは母親が家庭にいた方が良いと考えるかどうかの規範である。後者は女性自身の母親の生き方に対する肯定や否定から大きい影響を受けている。出産が日本ほど大きいキャリアのネックである国は珍しいが，少子高齢社会の中でその解消は必要であり，子どもを産む性である女性の目線から，日本の雇用慣行への改革の提言と実践がまさに望まれている