Changing Traditions: Rural Women's Roles in the Creation of Modern Japan, 1868-1960

In the half century prior to the end of World War II, village women helped shape Japanese modernity by abandoning longstanding rural customs and enforcing new models of behavior among their peers and subordinates. By tracing the processes by which rural women constructed modernity and gender roles among themselves and in relation to rural men, I show that farm women contributed actively to the evolution of modernity in Japan, and demonstrate that they were able to make choices regarding what practices to incorporate into their communities and to impose those choices on others. This work thus contributes to a growing body of research that questions "traditional" gender roles in Asian societies, while highlighting the significant role rural women have played in interpreting and disseminating modernity.