Role of the Japanese Wife Today

Today, marriage for love is much more acceptable, but within the family, particularly in families where the head male of the family holds a powerful job, most married women are houswives (Hendry). The one duty the housewife has outside of domestic chores is organizing the finances of the house. According to Hendry, some women "take this role so seriously that they are called 'professional housewives', a role very often involving considerable input to the children's education as well as reasearch into household products, the nutritional value of food for the family, and so on" (Hendry).

Hendry goes onto note that it is not uncommon in Japan for housewives to set up food cooperatives in order to buy direct from companies, in part to have control of the production process (Hendry)! "One of these groups was awwarded an international prize for createing an alternative economy based on 'cooperation, human contact and ecological sustainability' in 1989" (Hendry).

From Hendry: "Rosenberger's paper on home magazines introduces an interesting feature of futuristic living in the 'home automaton' found amongst the high technology of the wealtheir homes of Tokyo. This is a control panel which allows remote access to light switches, doors, shutters, bath heaters and rice cookers, which is connected into a telephone system so that a call home can attend to security, comfort and supper before the journey is even undertaken. The development of a machine like this may help working wives to manage their homes from a distance" (Hendry).

While this is an interesting point by Rosenberger, it should also be pointed out that not only does this technological advancement help working wives manage their homes from a distance, but it also absolves their husbands from taking on any of the domestic responsabilties when adapting to their wives' new gender role as co-provider.

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