- 著者
- 高岡 治子
- 出版者
- Japan Society of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences
- 雑誌
- 体育学研究 (ISSN:04846710)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.55, no.2, pp.525-538, 2010
- 被引用文献数
- 1
Japanese married women only began participating widely in sports after the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. It is often said that sports activities by housewives indicated their liberation from isolated domestic life, thereby promoting gender equality. However, close examination of the systemic characteristics of the 'Mothers' Volleyball' movement (based on its ideology, competition rules and the nature of its routine activities) has shown that these activities possess both a recycling structure that releases housewives from their homes temporarily and reflects the participants' 'housewifeliness', thereby reinforcing the separation of roles between the sexes.<br> In order to clarify by whom and for what purpose this recycling structure was created, this paper focuses on the organizing bodies (sponsor organizations, supporting companies and other bodies that organized and ran the national championships, incorporating the systemic characteristics of Mothers' Volleyball), analyzing the reasons for their involvement with the movement and the benefits they derived from it. The results show that the periodic reflection of housewifeliness, which housewives needed in order to continue in their role as housewives, was necessary for the economic and social benefit of all the organizations involved, and that this is why these organizations committed themselves to the movement.<br> Participating in sports freed housewives from the routine of daily home life, and activities such as helping to organize competitions promoted their socialization and changed their image from that of 'isolated housewife' to 'sporting housewife' and further to 'independent housewife'. The recycling structure mentioned earlier can therefore be thought of as being a directional spiral, and the organizing bodies that ran the national championships can be said to be its drivers.<br> This spiral, which helped to reproduce 'housewifeliness', supplied society with good-quality labour for sustaining Japan's rapid economic growth, which was a political issue in the 1970s. The participation of housewives in sports as one of the activities of parent-teacher associations and women's associations can also be said to have contributed to local revitalization, another political topic at that time. Meanwhile, making sports one of their routine, repeated activities made housewives' lives more satisfying, so that Mothers' Volleyball acted as a medium for the formation of a conjugate relationship between housewives and society.<br>
- 著者
- 高岡 治子
- 出版者
- 一般社団法人 日本体育学会
- 雑誌
- 体育学研究 (ISSN:04846710)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.53, no.2, pp.391-407, 2008-12-10 (Released:2009-02-25)
- 参考文献数
- 38
- 被引用文献数
- 1 2
Japanese married women only began participating widely in sports after the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. It is often said that participation in sports by housewives symbolized their liberation from isolated domestic life, thereby promoting gender equality. This thesis examines the development of housewives' sports activities and the characteristics of the sports institution, taking “Mums' Volleyball” as the main example, and concludes that those housewives undertook their role without themselves realizing that they were contributing to national economic growth, thereby exaggerating the sexual division of labor. The perpetuation of “housewifeliness” signifies repeated states in which housewives were liberated from their daily household routine, and then were empowered to fulfill their roles as home-makers even more effectively by the sports activities in which they participated. Thus the perpetuation of “housewifeliness” could be expressed as a circular diagram illustrating repeated liberation from “housewifeliness” and its prepetuation. With the development of their sports activities, the image of housewives changed from “isolated” to “cheerful”, and then to “autonomous”, and thus the circle could be considered a spiral diagram.In order to examine the concept of perpetuation of “housewifeliness”, how married women came to be regarded as “housewives” will be outlined, then the reasons why the housewives' sports movement occurred in the 1970s will be discussed. Finally, analysis of the institutional characteristics of “Mum's Volleyball”, such as ideology, rules, facilities for training, etc., will explain how “housewifeliness” was perpetuated.“Mums' Volleyball” was an informal name, and “Housewives' Volleyball” was the official one. Although since the 1970s, the word “housewife” has almost never been used because of its gender inference, it has been used in many cases with reference to sports activities by married women. As the word “housewife”, however, symbolized a good wife and mother, sports activities were accepted and acknowledged by their husbands and their families and, ultimately by society.The housewives who perpetuated “housewifeliness” contributed to the country's economic growth by ensuring that their husbands were always in top condition for work. In the meantime, they were required to have organizational skills, for example, skills for managing their teams, sports associations, and various tournaments in which they participated. Thus the housewives' sports activities could be said to have two faces: one was to free housewives from home-bound chores, encouraging them to have social empowerment, and the other was to accelerate their sexual division of labor as home-makers.
- 著者
- 高岡 治子
- 出版者
- 一般社団法人 日本体育学会
- 雑誌
- 体育学研究 (ISSN:04846710)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.55, no.2, pp.525-538, 2010 (Released:2010-12-28)
- 参考文献数
- 25
- 被引用文献数
- 1
Japanese married women only began participating widely in sports after the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964. It is often said that sports activities by housewives indicated their liberation from isolated domestic life, thereby promoting gender equality. However, close examination of the systemic characteristics of the ‘Mothers’ Volleyball’ movement (based on its ideology, competition rules and the nature of its routine activities) has shown that these activities possess both a recycling structure that releases housewives from their homes temporarily and reflects the participants’ ‘housewifeliness’, thereby reinforcing the separation of roles between the sexes. In order to clarify by whom and for what purpose this recycling structure was created, this paper focuses on the organizing bodies (sponsor organizations, supporting companies and other bodies that organized and ran the national championships, incorporating the systemic characteristics of Mothers’ Volleyball), analyzing the reasons for their involvement with the movement and the benefits they derived from it. The results show that the periodic reflection of housewifeliness, which housewives needed in order to continue in their role as housewives, was necessary for the economic and social benefit of all the organizations involved, and that this is why these organizations committed themselves to the movement. Participating in sports freed housewives from the routine of daily home life, and activities such as helping to organize competitions promoted their socialization and changed their image from that of ‘isolated housewife’ to ‘sporting housewife’ and further to ‘independent housewife’. The recycling structure mentioned earlier can therefore be thought of as being a directional spiral, and the organizing bodies that ran the national championships can be said to be its drivers. This spiral, which helped to reproduce ‘housewifeliness’, supplied society with good-quality labour for sustaining Japan's rapid economic growth, which was a political issue in the 1970s. The participation of housewives in sports as one of the activities of parent-teacher associations and women's associations can also be said to have contributed to local revitalization, another political topic at that time. Meanwhile, making sports one of their routine, repeated activities made housewives’ lives more satisfying, so that Mothers’ Volleyball acted as a medium for the formation of a conjugate relationship between housewives and society.