gender stratification in contemporary urban japan

8/2/2019 Gender Stratification in Contemporary Urban Japan

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Gender Stratification in Contemporary Urban JapanAuthor(s): Mary C. BrintonReviewed work(s):Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Aug., 1989), pp. 549-564Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095878 .

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GENDER STRATIFICATION IN CONTEMPORARY URBAN JAPAN*MARY C. BRINTON

TheUniversityf ChicagoJapanese women participate in the labor force at rates similar to women inWestern ndustrialnations, but genderstratificationpatternsare sharper. Womenin Japan are less apt to work as employees, a tendencythat increases with age.Likewise, emale employeestend to shift rom larger to smaller irms across the lifecycle, whereas male employees do not. These aggregate patterns imply thatJapanesewomenare seldomplaced in career-trackpositions in largefirms early intheir careers. Analyseson labormarketentrydatafrom the 1984 "Surveyon WorkPatterns"substantiatethis view. Although Japanese men and womenenter largefirms at equivalentrates uponleaving school, 22 percentof men and only 7 percentof womenenter career ladders. Themajorityof women enter large firms as clericalworkers, three-quartersof whom are in low-level "assistant clerical" positions.Causal processes governing entrance to large firms and career tracks areexamined n thepaper, withparticularattentionto the relative returnsto differentlevels and typesof education or Japanese men and women.

INTRODUCTIONIn recent years, Western social scientists haveproduced many historical and sociologicalstudies of Japanese industrial relations. Thisbody of research has contributed to a greaterunderstanding of the origins and functioningof the Japanese "permanent employmentsystem." But these studies have focusedalmost exclusively on the small proportion ofthe labor force actually covered by permanentemployment policies: male full-time workersin large firms.The rate of female labor force participationin Japan roughly parallels that of Westernindustrial nations, yet the role played bywomen in the economy remains largelyuninvestigated. Researchers routinely cite thelow status of women in the Japanese

* Directall correspondenceo Mary C. Brinton,Department f Sociology, 1126 E. 59th Street,TheUniversityof Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.Data collection for the researchreported n thispaper was supportedin part by grant #SES84-07208 from the National Science Foundation.Support from the Social Science DivisionalResearch fund at The University of Chicago, theJapan Foundation, the Social Science ResearchCouncil, and the National Academy of Educationis also gratefully acknowledged. I received valu-able suggestions on the paperfrom participantsnthe Fall 1987 OrganizationsColloquium at Stan-ford University, the Demography Workshop ofThe University of Chicago, Mary Jean Bowman,and anonymousASRreviewers.

workplace (Clark 1979; Cole 1979; Rohlen1974) and link it inferentially to the perma-nent employment system. The permanentemployment system refers to the internallabormarketstructure f the largefirmsin theeconomy, where workers are hired directlyupon graduationfrom school and move upcareer laddersthrough principlesof seniorityand merit.1 Observers of the Japaneseecon-omy allege thatwomen do not have access tothese career adders,and case studies of workorganizations upport his view. But organiza-tional case studies leave a number ofquestionsunresolved.First, we do not know whatproportionsofwomen enterlargefirms. Second, we have noestimates of the numberof women who gainaccess to career adders n these firms. Thus itis unclear whether Japanese women areexcluded from the large-firm sector of theeconomy or, alternatively,participateheavilyin this sector but are in non-career-trackroles. Third, we do not know the extent towhich exclusion from career ladders is basedon human capital considerations(e.g., sexdifferences in education and ability) or on

' The terms career ladder and career track areused synonymously throughout the paper toindicate a systematic progressionof hierarchicallyranked jobs in one firm. This term is used inpreferenceover internal abor market,which has asomewhat broader meaning. See Althauser andKalleberg (1981) and Osterman 1984) for discus-sions of internal abormarketsand career ladders.American Sociological Review, 1989, Vol. 54 (August:549-564) 549


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550 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWother considerations such as discriminatoryhiring and job assignmentpractices.This paper investigates these questions.Since little has been written about Japanesewomen's status in the economy, I first useaggregate data to give an overview of genderstratification patterns in Japan and otherindustrial economies. I also examine thedivergence in men's and women's workpatterns in Japan across the life cycle.Attitudinaldata and ethnographic nformationilluminate processes of sex discrimination nJapanese recruitment and hiring. In thesecond half of the paperI presenta microlevelanalysisof labormarketentry using data fromthe "Survey on Work Patterns" for twocohorts of urbanJapanesemen and women. Iestimate the relative proportionsof men andwomen who enter large firms upon leavingschool and the proportionswho enter career-track positions. Finally, I examine thevariables governing these processes for menand women, to assess whetherthe returns ofamily background, ability, education, andothercharacteristicsdiffer for the sexes.JAPANESE WOMEN'S PARTICIPATIONIN THE ECONOMYAs shown in Table 1, Japanese womenexhibit a labor force participation ate similarto that of women in Western industrialnations. With 49 percentof adult females inthe laborforce, Japanstandsbetween the highrates of North America and Scandinavia andthe somewhat ower ratesof WesternEurope.However, an examination of the relativepatterns of men's and women's participationin the economy shows Japanto be an outlieramong industrialeconomies.Among industrial economies, Japanesewomen make up the lowest proportion (36percent)of paid workers relative to men. InTable 2 I show how the sexes are distributedby employment status (employee, self-employed, and family enterprise worker) invarious industrial economies. Compared toother nations, Japan displays the largest gapbetween the proportionsof men and womenwho work as employees. The sex distributionof the self-employed is fairly even in Japan;but 20 percent of women work as familyenterprise workers as opposed to only 3percent of men. In short, the comparativelylow rate (67 percent) at which Japanesewomen work as employees in complemented

Table 1. Female Labor Force Participation Rate inIndustrialEconomiesJapan 48.6United States 52.7Canada 54.3West Germany(1984) 41.1England (1984) 37.4France(1984) 43.1Norway 59.8Sweden 68.1Denmark 59.0Australia 46.2

Notes: (a) All figures are for 1985, except whereindicated.(b) Figures are calculated as (total numberofwomen in the labor force/total female populationage 15and above) x 100, with the following exceptions: ForEngland, the denominator s the total female population(thusrendering he figurerelatively ow); forNorway andSweden, the denominator s the total female populationage 16 and above.(c) Countries n Tables 1-3 were chosen on thebasis of geographicalrepresentation ndcomparability fdata.Source: International Labor Organization (1986);JapaneseMinistryof Labor(1987).

by the high rate of unpaidfamily enterpriseworkers in small family-run businesses orfarms. Even in the nonagriculturalpopula-tion, Japanesewomen exhibit a much higherrate of family enterprise employment thanwomen in othercountries.AlthoughJapanesemen exhibit a somewhathigher rate of suchemploymentthan men in other nations, themagnitudeof the difference in much lowerthanfor women.As shownin Figure1, the proportionof theJapanese female labor force who work asemployees is highest at young ages (20-24)anddeclinesmonotonicallyexcept for a slightincrease in the age-group 40-44, whenwomen's childcare responsibilities typicallydecrease. In short, even among workingwomen, the proportion of paid employeesdecreasessharplywithmarriage ndchildbear-ing in the late 20s andearly 30s and does notagainapproach he earlier evel. Althoughnotshown here, data for 1970, 1975, and 1980indicatethat this is largely an age rather hana cohort effect. While the proportion ofemployed women in each age-group whowork as employees has increased over time,the shapeof the curve remainsthe same:largenumbers of women move from employee tononemployeestatusafter age 25. These datamay reflect conflict between women's familyresponsibilities and the demands of paid


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 551Table 2. EmploymentStatuses of Workers n IndustrialEconomies

FamilyEm- Self- enterpriseployee employed worker OtherJapan 67.2 12.5 20.0 -(78.9) (17.9) (2.8) -Nonagricultural 74.3 12.0 13.5 -populationonly (83.9) (13.8) (1.9) -United States 93.6 5.7 0.8 -(89.8) (10.1) (0.2) -Canada 1984) 91.2 6.8 1.9(88.7) (10.9) (0.4) -West Germany 88.1 4.8 7.0 -(87.9) (11.4) (0.7) -England(1980) 96.0 3.8 - 0.2(88.0) (10.0) - (2.1)France (1975) 83.2 9.3 7.5(81.2) (17.5) (1.2) -Norway 90.1 3.9 3.6 2.4(84.5) (13.0) (0.9) (1.7)Sweden 95.3 4.3 0.4 -(90.4) (9.4) (0.2) -Denmark 92.0 3.1 4.9 -(85.3) (14.5) (0.2) -Australia 80.7 11.0 0.5 7.9(76.5) (15.8) (0.3) (7.4)

Notes: (a) Upper figures are for women; figures inparenthesesare for men.(b) All figures are for 1985, except whereindicated.(c) "Other" signifies workers whose statuswas unknown. The table excludes workersclassified as unemployed.Source: International Labor Organization (1986);JapaneseMinistryof Labor (1987).

labor, or reflect employer discriminationaswomen reach marriageable age (Japanesewomen's mean age at marriageis currently25.5 years). Both explanations likely comeinto play.Comparable iguresfor men (also in Figure1) show that men's rate of labor forceparticipationas employees declines slightlywith age. But while women employeesevidence a 26-percentage-pointdropbetweenages 20-24 and 35-39, men show only a7.5-percentage-pointdrop.Aggregatedataprovideclues to the limitedopportunitiesfor female employees to workon a long-term basis in large firms and tobenefitfromthe high wages andpromotion omanagerialranks that such firms offer.Data in Table 3 show thatyoung men andwomen employees (ages 20-24), who havegenerally ust left school and entered he labormarket,have very similar rates of entrancetoworkorganizationsof differentsizes. In fact,

0 90 - -0 800.70060-*

Proportion 0 50 - -Employees 0 40

030-2 Male employees0 20- * Female employees0.10 -.

0.00-20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-64

Age

Source: JapaneseMinistryof Labor(1987).Figure 1. Proportionof Female and Male Labor ForceWorkingas Employees, by Age Group(1985)

female employees are slightly underrepre-sented in the smallest firms and overrepre-sented in the largest ones. But men's andwomen's representationn firms of differentsizes changes dramatically in the olderage-groups. By age 45-49, women's partici-pation rate in small firms in one and a halftimes that of men. Men's participation ateinsmall firms remains extremely stable acrossage-groups. Conversely, women age 45-49participatein large firms at a rate approxi-mately three-fifths that of men (and alsothree-fifths the rate for 20-24 year-old

Table 3. Distribution of Female and Male Employeesacross Firmsof Different Sizes, by Age-Group(1985)Firm Size

Tiny Small Medium Large(1-9) (10-99) (100-999) (1000+)Age-group20-24 13.8 28.4 24.9 33.0(15.4) (29.7) (23.6) (31.3)25-29 17.4 26.9 19.3 36.7(14.4) (27.0) (22.2) (36.3)30-34 23.0 30.3 17.1 30.3(15.8) (27.5) (20.6) (35.8)35-39 25.0 34.3 17.2 23.0(15.9) (27.0) (20.4) (36.5)40-44 24.0 36.5 18.3 21.2(15.3) (27.5) (19.8) (37.1)45-49 22.4 38.8 19.1 20.2

(14.9) (30.0) (19.5) (35.6)50-54 21.7 38.5 18.2 21.7(15.5) (30.6) (18.8) (34.7)55-64 28.2 39.7 13.7 18.3(17.6) (34.9) (19.6) (28.1)Note: Upper figures representproportionof employedwomen in each age-groupwho work for firms of varyingsizes; figures in parentheses represent proportions ofmen.Source:Office of the PrimeMinister, Japan(1985).


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552 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEWwomen). Men age 45-49 are represented nlarge firms at a slightly higher rate than menage 20-24.2These trends could be produced either byan age (life cycle) effect or by a cohort effect.That is, the data could be indicating thatemployed womenmove out of largefirmsandinto small firms laterin life (an age effect), orthat older employed women are overrepre-sentedin small firms because they startedoutin small firms (a cohort effect). In order toassess these two explanations,similar tableswere constructed or 1972 (the first year suchdata are available), 1975, and 1980. Thesame age pattern also appeared in theseformerperiods: women employees began toworkin large firms at a rate somewhat higherthan men, but the firm size pattern by sexreversed at older ages. This suggests a lifecycle interpretationwherebywomen employ-ees leave the largefirmsthey initially entered,either dropping out of the labor force orshiftingto smallerfirms. Whichever of thesetwo courses they pursue, it is clear thatwomen are not movingup in career adders nthe internal abormarketsof large firms.

Managerial and wage data support thisview of limited female participationn careerladders. Internationalcomparabilityof bothoccupationaland wage data is limited, but afew illustrative figures may be given. Theratio of Japanese emaleto male employees inmanagerial ranks is only 13 percent, com-paredto 68 percentin the United States, 63percent in Canada, and 41 percent in WestGermany (InternationalLabor Organization1986). The overallfemale/malewage ratio forfull-time workers in 1983 rangedin Westernindustrialnationsfrom a low of 66.5 (weeklyrate) in the United States to highs in the84-89 percent range (hourly) in France andNorthernEurope. Wages in Japan are typi-cally reported as monthly rates, and thefemale/male ratio in 1983 was 55.5, substan-tially lower than in any other industrialcountry (JapaneseMinistryof Labor 1987).Attitudesurveydata and ethnographicdatasupplementthese aggregate labor force fig-ures. A nationalopinionpoll of 3000 people

2 Table 3 is restrictedonly to employees, whichmeans that these trends are not produced bywomen who work as unpaid workers in smallfamily enterprises.Rather,the trends areproducedonly by women who work in the formal (paid)sector of the economy.

conductedby the Yomiurinewspaper n Japanin April 1984 indicated a widespreadpercep-tion of sex discrimination n Japanesework-places: 80 percent of respondents believedthat women are treated in a "disadvanta-geous" way in regard to hiring, and 84percentfelt that this situationalso applies tojob rotation andpromotion.Young Japanese women and their parentstake note of the restrictive recruitmentpolicies for women. Especiallymarked s theperception of low returns to university-educatedwomen in the labor market.Peopleinterviewed during my fieldwork in 1984indicated that education for a daughterwaswell andgood to a point; once that point wasreached, education didn't help and couldactually hurt a young women's chances ofgetting a job. This was summed up in thecomments of one puzzled mother, a middle-aged employee at a suburban branch of aTokyo bank:

Now my daughter s debatingaboutwhether togo to junior college or to university. She saysthat getting a university education will be ahandicap(furi) when she looks for a job; it'strue that the situation for women universitygraduates is very bad and that close to 100percentof women junior college graduatescanget jobs. But even so, I think she should goahead and go to university. It's a hardsituation-and it's hard for me to give advice tomy daughters.(Brinton 1986)A 1984 survey asked young Japanesewomen's opinion on the correspondencebetween education and success in their job

search. Respondentswere women who wereto graduate he following March,andthus hadeither completedor were in the midst of jobseeking. One-fifth of the university womenfelt that in the final analysis their educationwas more of a disadvantage than an advan-tage, comparedto only 12 percentof juniorcollege women. Conversely,half of thejuniorcollege women felt thattheireducationhelpedthem on the job market,a proportionsimilarto thatfor universitywomen.Japaneseemployershavecustomarilyaskedwomen duringthejob interviewwhethertheyplan to quit when they marry.3Many youngwomen reportedin my fieldwork interviews3 Such questioningis now formally illegal as aresult of the JapaneseDiet's passage of an EqualEmploymentOpportunityLaw in 1985.


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 553that previous ob seekers advisedthem to statean intention to quit, because this wouldheighten their chances of being hired. Byquitting in their mid- to late 20s, Japanesewomen provide employers a cushion againsttoo many "permanent" mployees. Yet at thesame time that employers encourage thisbehavior, many claim that they do not giveequivalenttrainingand promotionopportuni-ties to men and women because they fearwomen will get marriedand leave the laborforce. The employer's returns from theinvestment in women workers' training willthen be lost. This constitutes one of thecontradictions of female employment inJapan, a link in the vicious circle of stronglygender-definedexpectationson the employerside and conforming behavior on the laborsupply side.Japaneseemployersare stronglymotivatedto hire employees who plan to remain withthe firm over a long period, so that the costsof on-the-jobtrainingwill not be wasted. Pastexperience has taught them that women aremore likely to quit and that investment inwomen's training is therefore riskier thaninvestment in men's. In this way, thepervasiveness of the internal labor marketstructure and accompanying firm-specifictrainingconstitutesan institutionalbarrier owomen.4 And as poignantlyillustrated n theethnographicmaterialabove, employerexpec-tations and behaviors feed back to youngwomen's attitudesandbehavioras well as totheirparents'.This is especiallymeaningful na culturalsettingsuch as Japan,whereparentsare almost uniformly responsible for financ-ing children's education and are thereforeintimately involved in educational decisionmakingand investment(Brinton1988).The employment practices outlined abovecan be analyzed with microlevel data onJapanesemen's and women's entry into thelabor force after leaving school. In the nextsection, I make predictions concerning therelative proportions of men and womenentering large firms and the proportionsenteringcareer-track ositionsin such firms. Ithen make a numberof predictionsabout thefactors importantin the process by which

individuals enter large firms and careerladders, paying particular attention to thetranslation of education into employmentoutcomes for men andwomen.

ENTRANCE INTO LARGE FIRMS ANDCAREERLADDERSDescriptivePredictionsI make two descriptivepredictionsconcerninglabor marketentranceof men and women.

(1) Japanesemenandwomenwillhaveroughlyequalprobabilitiesf initiallybeing hired ntolarge firms upon school graduation; omen'sprobability aybe slightlyhigher.Why? Japanese employers in large firmshave only a limited numberof career-ladderpositions to offer; career lines represent"packages of training and jobs" (Miyahara1988, p. 41). Hiring women over men intonon-career-trackpositions in the firm repre-sents savings in wage costs for employers, forthese women will "retire" n a few years andbe replaced by new school graduates at

starting wages. If this is true, we shouldexpect to see large numbers of womenentering large firms, but we shouldexpect tosee them entering different slots than men.This leads to the second prediction:(2) Significantlymore men thanwomenwillenter areer-trackositions n their irst ob.

Causal PredictionsI make several predictionsabout the processof entering large firms and careertracks, anddifferences in the process for men andwomen. A numberof factorscan be hypoth-esized to be important:(1) the individual'seducational attainment and the quality ofeducation; (2) ability; (3) labor force attach-ment (relevantfor women); (4) the historicaltiming of labor force entry, representedbycohort; and (5) family backgroundvariables(father's employment status and mother'slabor- orce participation).Because particularfeatures of the Japanese social-institutionalcontext affect both measurementand predic-tion, these issues are also discussed below.Educationallevel and quality. Educationalattainment s typically used as a measure ofhuman capital in the prediction of jobplacement. The hierarchicalstructureof theJapanese educational system and the strong

4 See Roos and Reskin (1984) for a generaldiscussionof institutionalbarriers.For discussionsof internal abor markets, promotional racks, andon-the-job training in Japan, see Cole (1979),Koike (1983), and Shirai(1983).


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554 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWlink between schools and work organizations(Miyahara 1988; Rohlen 1983; Rosenbaumand Kariya 1987) suggest that "quality" ofschooling in addition to level is an importantpredictor.5Further, he effects of educationallevel and quality may differ for males andfemales. Specifically:

Educational attainment should be positivelyrelated to entranceinto a large firm and into acareer track for males. However, the effect isnot necessarily a linear one: male high schoolgraduatesmay fare better than those with thenext level of schooling (junior college/vocationalschool).Among males who continue on to highereducation after high school (currentlyabout38 percent), 95 percent are in four-yearuniversities and only 5 percent are invocationalschools. Given the strengthof therecruitmentrelationshipbetween large firmsand high schools (Rosenbaum and Kariya1987) as well as large firms and universities,a young man's probabilityof enteringa largefirm from high school or universityshouldbehigher than the probabilityattachedto voca-

tional school. The survey to be used for theanalysisdistinguishes herankingsof schools,and I expect that more of the males whoattendedtop-rankedhigh schools and univer-sities will be recruitedinto large firms andinto career-track ositions.6A linear relationis expected between females'educationalattainmentand probabilityof enter-ing a large firm, with only a slight gain forwomen with a universityeducation.Forentranceinto a career-trackposition, education will besignificantly ess helpful to women thanto men.Further,only the most highly educatedwomen(graduatingromtop universities)will have anychanceof enteringa career-track osition.Women's educationalattainment n Japan

differs significantlyfrom men's. While aboutone-third of women continue their educationafter high school, nearly two-thirdsof thesego on to junior college and the rest enroll infour-year universities. Since junior collegerepresents he most "typical" route after highschool and since such women largely follow asex-typical curriculum, graduatesrepresent aready pool of labor for large firms' low-levelclerical needs. University educationwill notrepresent a great improvement in women'schances of being hired into large firms. Forentrance nto careertracks,I predictthatonlygraduation rom a top universitywill increasewomen's chances.

Ability. Ability is hypothesizedto be a predictorof placement in both large firms and careerpositions for men and women.Workplans. No relationship is predicted be-tween women's work plans and placementin alarge firm, but a positive relationships expectedbetween women's placement in career-trackpositionsandplansto work acrossthe life cycle.Japaneseemployers frequentlyclaim thatitis not economically rational to place women

in career-track ositions and on-the-job train-ing programsbecauseof theirhigh propensityto quit upon marriageor childbirth.This isdifficult to test without a longitudinal study,but an indirect approach is to examine therelationshipbetween first job and women'sretrospectivereportof their adolescentplansfor future work life. If the claim of Japaneseemployersis correct,we wouldexpect to findan association between women's plans forcontinuous work and their placement in acareer-track osition. And if the arguments nthis paperare correct, we would also expectthat women's plans for continuous work donot have anythingto do with placementin alargefirmper se, because it is likely thattheywill be in positions that neither requirenorencourage long-term employment.Control variables

Cohort.It is predicted hat membersof the oldercohort (40-44 years of age) in the sampleexperienced greater opportunities initially toenter career-track ositionsthan membersof theyoungercohort(25-29 years of age).The sampleincludestwo cohorts.Membersof one (40-44) enteredthe labormarket n theearly 1960s duringa periodof rapideconomicgrowth, and members of the other (25-29)

5In Japan, both high schools and universitiesare hierarchicallyranked, with entrance to eachlevel regulated by a highly competitive examina-tion system. Rosenbaumand Kariya (1987) foundthat amonghigh school students,school rankwas asignificantpredictorof placement in clerical jobsin large firms, the placement most preferredbymales and females in generaland commercialhighschools.6 Career ladders exist for both blue- andwhite-collar obs. Therefore,I predictthat gradua-tion from a prestigious high school or universitywill heighten men's probabilityof placement in acareer adder.


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GENDERSTRATIFICATION N JAPAN 555entered in the late 1970s, a recessionaryperiod. Some scholars have suggested thatJapanesewomenarethe firstto be affectedbyeconomicdownturns,as employersattempt oprotect the core male workers who arepermanent employees (Rohlen 1979).7 If thisis correct, then female members of theyoungercohort would have been particularlysubject to exclusion from career-trackposi-tions.

Father's employmentstatus. Father's employ-ment status is a control variable and is notexpectedto directlyinfluence labor force entry,except that children of self-employed fathersmay be less likely to work in large firms or incareer-track positions because their labor isvalued in the family business.Mother's labor orce participation.In the highlysex-discriminatorynvironmentof Japan,moth-ers' participation n the paid labor force mayexert a discouraging effect on daughters'career-track ntrancebecause daughterswitnesstheir mothers'difficulties. Mother's laborforceparticipationwill not necessarilyhave any effecton daughter's entrance into a large firm, atemporarystate before marriage. No effect ispredicted or sons.

DATA AND METHODSData for the following analysis come from asurvey (the "Survey on Work Patterns")Iconducted in three urban locations in Japanduring 1984: Sapporo, Kodaira(a suburbofTokyo), and Toyohashi. Up to the presenttime, no microlevel data set that includes thenecessary variableshas been publicly avail-able. The data were collected as part of alarger project on gender stratification n theJapanese economy. Questions in the mailsurveyincludeextensive informationon natalfamily, educational,marital,and work histo-ries, as well as educational aspirationsandbehaviors owardsrespondents'own children.A stratifiedrandomsampling procedurewasfollowed, with random samples of men andwomen in two cohorts (25-29 years and40-44 years) drawn from the senkyonin

meibo (voting registrationrecords) in eachcity. These records constitute a completecurrent isting by householdof all adults overage 20 in the city. A 13-page questionnairewas mailed to the sample, with an overallresponse rate of 50.1 percent for the threecities. This response rate, while respectablefor a mail survey, nevertheless may entailbiases thatcould affect the statisticalresults.Therefore, a number of checks were carriedout to assess the degree of responsebias.Comparison of the respondents to thepopulations from which they were drawnindicatesa slight overeducationbias. Weightswere applied to equalize the educationaldistributionof the age/sex groupsin each citywith the populationsfrom which the sampleswere drawn.8The overall sample was thencomparedwith the general urbanpopulation(or, where possible, with the figures for thethree sampled cities) on labor force status,employment status, and industry-employ-ment indicatorsavailable in publishedcensusmaterials. The distributions on all threevariables are very similarfor the respondentsand the population.9Further,the proportionsof men and women in the younger cohort(25-29) who entered arge firms afterleavingschool are strikingly similar to labor forcedata collected by the government. Govern-ment statistics for the age cohort 20-24 in1975 (the cohort most comparable n termsofhistorical timing of labor market entrance)show that 33.0 percent of men and 35.2percent of women were employed in largefirms. This compares to rates of 32.0 and35.0 for men andwomen, respectively, in theyoungercohortin our sample.Statistics computedfrom this sample alsoclosely match national surveys on a numberof attitudinalvariables such as perceptionsofsex discrimination in the labor market,educationalaspirationsfor sons and daugh-ters, andexpectationsto live with childreninold age. Finally, no significant differencesexist among the means of variables for thethree major waves of respondents.In short,

8 The unweighted sample was used in thelogistic regressionanalysesreported n this paper,as the analyseswere done separately or each sex,and education and age were both used asindependentvariables.9 Tables showing these comparisonsare avail-able from the authorupon request.

7 Bowman notes the high demandfor both maleand female clericalworkers n the mid-1960s in theJapaneseeconomy. She adds, "But recenthistorysuggeststhat net movements of men out of clericalemployment into higher level jobs will persist,while women will continue to fill the clericalposts" (1981, p. 214).


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556 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWTable 4. Measurementof VariablesCohort Dummy variable (representinghistorical timing of respondent'sentry into the labormarket);0=respondent 25-29 years of age, 1=respondent 40-44 years of age.Father'semployment Series of dummyvariables or father'semploymentstatuswhen respondentwas 15 years

of age: unemployedor absent, self-employedor farm, blue-collar, white-collar(omittedcategory).Mother'semployment Dummyvariablefor mother'semploymentstatusoutside home when respondentwas 15years of age: 0=mother was full-time housewife, family worker,or workedin a homehandicraftob; 1= motherwas employed part-timeor full-time outside the home.Ability Respondent's class rank in senior year of high school, by decile, scored 1-5. (Ifrespondentdid not attend high school, class rank in final year of junior high school issubstituted.)Education Series of dummy variables for respondent's educational level and, for university,educational quality: junior high school (omitted category), high school, juniorcollege/vocationalschool, low-rankinguniversity, medium-/high-rankingniversityWork plans Dummy variable representing women's reported plans in adolescence to workcontinuouslyacross the life cycle.bLarge-firmplacement Dummyvariablerepresenting nitialjob placement n the governmentsector or in a firmemploying 1000 + employees.Career-ladder Dummyvariablerepresentingnitialjob placement n a career adder(see text for detailsplacement on measurement).

a The scale of university qualitywas constructedwith the cooperationof Professor Keiko NakayamaWatanabe,amemberof the Social Stratification ndMobility (SSM) project n Tokyo. Universities were ranked nto threegroups:the formerseven ImperialUniversities, Tokyo Instituteof Technology, and HitotsubashiUniversity (Group 1), a largergroupof publicandprivateuniversities(Group2), andlower-rankedprivateuniversities Group3). A completelistingof universitiesand theirrankings s available from the author.b The survey questionwas phrased n the following way: "Whenyou were about 18 yearsold, what combinationof

work andfamily life did you most hope to have in the future?"The proportionof women reporting he expectationofworkingcontinuouslythroughout he life cycle was only 15.9 percent; his categorywas combinedwith the categoryof women who expected thatthey would quit work temporarilywith childbirthand laterreenterthe work force. Thecombinedcategory represents39.6 percentof women.

all checks suggest confidencein the represen-tativenessof the data.Measurementof the variables is describedin Table 4, andmeansand standarddeviationsare shown in Table 5. (Means for dummyvariables are proportionsof respondentswhoscored "1" on those variables.) Ninety-threepercent of the 1154 respondents have hadsome work experience, yielding a total of1075 respondents n the present analysis. Ofthese, 96 percent entered the labor marketwithin two years after leaving school, andthere is no differentiation n this timing bysex. Thus, gender differentiation n employ-ment outcomes is not due to women's delayof their initial labor marketentry. In prelimi-nary analyses, a dummy variablewas createdto reflect whether the respondententered thelabor market within two years after schoolgraduation.This variable was insignificantinthe models. Less than 5 percent of eithermales or females were marriedat the time ofentry into the labor force, and a dummyvariable measuring marital status was alsoinsignificant n all models.

Measurement of the two dependent vari-ables-placement in a large firm and place-ment in a career-trackposition in such afirm-merits separatediscussionbelow.

OperationalizingFirm Size andCareer-TrackPositionA dummy variable was created to measureinitial placement in a large firm, with largefirm considered to be one that employs atleast 1000 people, or the governmentsector.This measure s in accordwithHashimotoandRaisian's (1983) conceptualization and isconsistent with classic studies of the Japaneseeconomy suchas Cole's (1979) andwith pub-lished governmentstatistics on firm size.10

10 A furtherjustification for classifying largefirms as those employing 1000 or more workersstems from Hashimotoand Raisian's findings onmedian tenure and estimated eventual tenure ofcurrentlyheld jobs in medium (100-999 employ-ees) and large (1000+) firms: median tenureincreasesby a factor of 1.5 andestimatedeventual


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 557Table 5. Means and StandardDeviations of Variables

Males Females(N= 424) (N= 651)Mean S.D. Mean S.D.

Cohort .587 .493 .570 .495Father'semploymentUnemployed or absent .083 .276 .077 .266Self-employed .425 .495 .421 .494Blue-collar .252 .435 .258 .438White-collar .241 .428 .244 .430Mother's employmentoutside home .217 .408 .241 .421Ability 3.234 1.018 3.315 .899EducationJuniorhigh .160 .367 .137 .344High school .373 .484 .471 .500Juniorcollege/vocational school .090 .286 .252 .434Low-rankinguniversity .226 .419 .094 .292Medium-/high-rankingUniversity .151 .358 .046 .210Work plans(in adolescence) - - .396 .490Large-firmplacement .307 .462 .300 .458Career-ladderplacement .219 .414 .069 .254

The variablemeasuring nitial career-trackposition was constructed as a composite ofseveral indicators.Respondentsprovidedthefollowing information on the first job theyheld after leaving school: employment status(employee, manager, self-employed, familyenterpriseworker,piece-rateworker), size offirm (1-9, 10-99, 100-299, 300-999, 1000or more employees, government), workingstatus full-time,part-time, emporaryworker),occupation (10 categories), industry (9 cate-gories), and self-assessed promotionalpossi-bilities in first job (none, supervisor orforeman, section chief, department head,higher than departmenthead). Individualswere classified as starting heir work life in acareer ladder if they (1) started as full-timeemployees or managers in a firm (not anindividual establishment) of 1000 or moreemployees or in the government sector, (2)reported having perceived some possibilityfor promotion (to section chief or anycategory above), (3) were neither in anagriculturaloccupation nor in an "assistant

clerical" position, and (4) were not workingin primaryindustry(agriculture,mining, orfishing).The principal unconventionalities in theconstructionof the careerladder variablearethe use of perceivedpromotionalpossibilitiesand the limited use of occupation andindustry. These decisions are related to theJapanesecase but also have relevancefor themeasurementof career ladders in general.The presentstudyfollows the spiritof severalprevious approaches(Spilerman1977; Ville-mez andBridges 1988) but makes specialuseof the standard hierarchy of positions inJapaneseenterprises o constructthe measureof careerladderplacement."IPositions in large Japanesework organiza-tions are arranged in vertical tiers, eachcorresponding to a span of control: (1)supervisoror foreman(kakaricho),generallyin charge of up to 5 subordinates, 2) sectionchief (kacho), heading a section of approxi-mately 10 subordinates,(3) departmenthead(bucho), supervisinga department typicallyconsisting of three or four section), and (4)the highest level administrativepositions,above department head. This structure iscommon in large firms across industries,andit represents both the factory and officesystems of titles and statuses:"The standardranks also supply a common frame ofreferencesfor people in differentdepartmentsor sections doing differentkinds of jobs. Aworkeron the shop floor can look forwardtobeing first a sub-section head and then asectionhead, withexactly the same privilegesas sub-sectionheads and section heads in thesales department or the accounts section"(Clark1979, p. 108). The termsforrankevenappear on the ubiquitousJapanese businesscard.The survey question that addressed theissue of position/statuswas as follows: "At

tenure by a factor of 1.3 between medium andlarge firms. The differences between medium,small, and tiny firms are of a much smallermagnitude.

" In an influential article on career ladders,Spilerman(1977) suggested replacing status andearnings of firstjob by representativemeasures ofthe career line's worth. He proposedmeasures ofexpected lifetime earningsand expected status 20years after career-lineentry, proposing a simula-tion procedure for estimating values on suchvariables. More recently, Villemez and Bridges(1988) constructeda compositevariablemeasuringinternal labor markets based on workers' andemployers'perceptionsof how givenjobs arefilledandwhat theirpromotionalpossibilitiesare.


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558 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWthe workplacewhere you held your first job(after leaving school), what was the highestpromotionalpossibility for you and for othersdoing the same type of work as you?" Thequestion was phrased in such a way as toinquire about the promotional possibilitiesinherent in the position rather than for thespecific respondent.2 All those who reportedhaving promotion possibilities to the secondlevel (kacho) or above were considered asfulfillingthis measurement riterion or careertrack.Occupationand industry.Occupationalandindustrialclassifications were used in only alimited fashion to constructthe career laddervariable because both occupationsand indus-tries are quite heterogeneous (Baron andBielby 1980). Blue- as well as white-collarjobs may be structured in career ladders(Hartmann1987; Doeringerand Piore 1971)and this is particularly rue in Japan. Salaryand status differences are also lower betweenblue- and white-collarworkersin Japanthanin the United States. Thus any distinctionsbased on a blue-/white-collarcriterion wouldbe erroneous. The measureused in this paperemploys occupationaland industrialclassifi-cations in a discretionary way, using onlythose categoriesthatclearly distinguishwork-ers as being in or out of a career track.When promotional possibilities are cross-classified with occupational categories, theoccupations that emerge as having very lowpromotionalpossibilitiesare agricultural ctiv-ities and the assistantclerical category. Otheroccupational categories such as sales work,generaloffice work, and services demonstrate

12 A comparisonof the responseto this questionwith the response to a question later in the surveythat asked about actual promotionalexperienceofthe individual respondent yielded the following:Among respondentswho reportedhavingbeen in apositionwith no promotionalpossibilities, only 1.8percentof women and6.1 percentof men reportedthatthey hadactuallyreceiveda promotion n theirfirstworkplace. However, muchgreatervariabilityin actual experience was reported among respon-dentswho saidthatthey were initiallyin a positionwith promotional possibilities. These results areconsistentwith the intentionof the questionon thestructureof promotionalpossibilities: One wouldexpect very few people who say they are in aposition with no upward trajectory to everexperiencesuch a trajectory,whereaspeople,whosay their position can lead to promotion may ormay not actually experiencethat outcome.

a wider distributionacross promotionalcate-gories. Only two occupational categorieswere thereforeused to sort respondents intocareer ladders: people in the combinedcategory including agriculture,fishing, andmining, or in the categoryof assistantclericalwork were classified as non-career-positionincumbents.The latterwas a categoryused inthe questionnaire n addition to "clerical"inan attemptto distinguishamong white-collarworkers. The length of career ladders inentry-level white-collar jobs in large firmsvaries widely (Halaby 1979; Hartmann1987;Kanter1977;Kelley 1982;Rosenbaum1985),and "assistant clerical" was intended tocapturethose low-level white-collaror pink-collarjobs with limitedcareerpotential.Industrialclassification was used only as acheck to classify people whose work livesbegan in primary industries (agriculture,fishing, mining) in the non-career-laddercategory and to include government sectoremployees in the career-laddercategory (ifthey fulfilled the other qualifying criterialisted above). Checks were carriedout to seewhetherfurtheruse of industrial lassificationwouldrefine the composite measureof careerladder based on employment status, full-time/part-timework, firm size, and occupa-tion. Industrieswere classified into core andperiphery sectors.13 The mean promotionalpossibility reported by full-time employeesand managerswas computedfor each sector,as well as the mean promotionalpossibilitiesfor full-timeemployeesandmanagers n largefirms (1000 or more workers). When firmsize is left unspecified,the differencein meanpromotionalpossibility is significant (t-test,p


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 559the mean promotional possibility in the twosectors is nearly exactly equal. So, specifica-tion of economic sector based on industrydoes not add information above and beyondspecification of firm size. The reverse doesnot hold. The mean promotionalpossibilitiesfor firms of different sizes (small, medium,and large) within industrialsector are signifi-cantlydifferent. 4Given these results,dataonindustrywere used only to make certain thatagriculture/primaryndustryand governmentemployees had been properlyclassified.Logistic regression methods were em-ployed for the analysis. The dichotomousnatureof the two dependentvariables(largefirm or government versus small firm;career-track position/non-career-track posi-tion) violates the assumptions of ordinaryleast squares regression. In this case, andespecially when the split on the dependentvariableis ratherextreme (as in the case offemales' entrance nto career adders), logisticregression is advisable (Hanushekand Jack-son 1977).

RESULTSVirtually equal proportions of men andwomen (30.7 percentvs. 30.0 percent)in thesample entered a large firm upon leavingschool (see Table5). This resultreplicatestheaggregate government statistics reportedear-lier. As predicted, there is no significantdifference in the rate at *which men andwomen enterlarge firms.But the proportionsof men and womenwhose firstjob was a career-trackposition ina large firm are significantly different: 22percentof men and only 7 percentof womenstarted their work lives in a career ladder.Stated differently, fully 71 percent of menwho started out in large firms were incareer-track positions, in contrast to 23percentof their female counterparts.This isbrought into sharprelief when we considerthe fact that 60 percent of the women whoentered a large firm when they left schoolentered as clerical workers. Among these,three-quarterswere "assistant clerical" posi-tions. In contrast,one-third of the men who

14 Tiny firms (those employing less than nineworkers)were excluded from this analysisbecauseof the very limitedpromotionalpossibilitieswithinthem.

entered large firms were placed in clericaljobs andonly 7 percentof these (one-tenth heproportionof women) were "assistant cleri-cal" positions.In Table6 I show the results of regressionsfor placement in a large firm at the startofone's work life. Two models were run forwomen, an initial one that omits women'sretrospectively eportedadolescentwork plansand a second one that includes this variable.This permitscomparisonof the initial modelfor men and women and comparison of thesecond model with the first one for women, tosee if adolescent workplans add significantlyto the explainedvariance.The process of entering a large firm issimilar for males and females. Ability andeducation are positively associated withentering a large firm for both sexes, andfamily background variables do not exertsignificanteffects. High school education isworth more than junior college/vocationalschool or low-rankinguniversity for males,whereas progressivelyhigher educational at-tainments increase women's probability ofenteringa large firm.15For women, mother's

labor force participationis not related toentrance into a large firm. Nor are workplans-Model 2, which includes this variable,does not representa significantimprovementover Model 1. These findings are as pre-dicted.When the coefficients for men and womenare compared,'6high-ability men are signifi-cantlymorelikely thanhigh-abilitywomen toenterlargefirms. Male high school graduatesare also significantlymore likely to start outin large firms than are female high schoolgraduates.Further sex differences emerge when theprocessof entrance nto career-track ositionsis examined. Humancapitalvariablessignifi-cant for men's placement in a career ladder

15 I originally rderedhigh schools into threetiers, expectingto insert rank order into theequations. But virtually all individuals whoattendedop-rankedrsecond-rankedighschoolscontinuedon to university, eaving these cellsnearlyempty. The numberof respondentswhoattendedop-rankedniversitiess also low in asampleof thissize, so thecategories f top-andsecond-rankedniversities erecombined.16 Analyseswerecarried ut on the fullsample(menandwomen),with nteractionermsbetweensex andeachvariablencluded.


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560 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWTable 6. Logit Coefficients Describing the Effects of Individual Characteristics n Entrance nto Large Firms afterLeaving School

Males FemalesModel 1 Model 1 Model 2

Constant -4.909** -2.557** -2.545**(.867) (.545) (.550)Cohort .074 - .234 - .236(.254) (.202) (.203)Father's employmentUnemployedor absent - .574 .127 .127(.518) (.358) (.358)

Self-employed -.497 - .309 -.310(.317) (.229) (.229)Blue-collar -.215 -.251 - .251(.333) (.258) (.258)White-collar - - -Mother's employment outside home -.268 -.047 -.045(.299) (.232) (.232)Ability .596** .269** .269**(.130) (.103) (.104)EducationJuniorhigh schoolHigh school 2.525** 1.088** 1.085**(.744) (.380) (.380)Juniorcollege/vocational school 2.138** 1.192** 1. 190**(.838) (.407) (.408)Low-rankinguniversity 2.429** 1.600** 1.604**(.765) (.468) (.469)Medium-/high-ranking niversity 3.283** 2.135** 2.140**

(.787) (.539) (.540)Work plans in adolescence - - -.032(.186)Maximum ikelihood x2 432.64 744.20 744.16D.F. 413 640 639Note: All significancetests are one-tailed;* p


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 561Table 7. Logit CoefficientsDescribingthe Effects of IndividualCharacteristics n Entrance ntoa CareerTrackafterLeaving School

Males FemalesModel 1 Model 1 Model 2

Constant - 2.769** - 4.977** - 5.297**(.540) (.843) (.870)Cohort - .005 .656* .738*(.274) (.390) (.393)Father'semploymentUnemployed or absent - .312 - .800 - .860(.522) (.688) (.694)Self-employed - .644* - 1.015** - 1.013**(.338) (.410) (.412)Blue-collar -.278 - .007 - .059(.348) (.428) (.429)White-collar - - -

Mother's employment outside home -.080 - 1.283* - 1.325*(.315) (.591) (.595)Ability .453** .725** .713**(.133) (.192) (.194)EducationJuniorhigh/highschoolJuniorcollege/vocationalschool .134 - .325 - .338(.500) (.443) (.444)Low-rankinguniversity .353 .209 .088(.327) (.577) (.580)Medium-/high-ranking niversity 1. 176** .556 .384(.354) (.555) (.562)Workplans in adolescence - - .758*(.333)Maximum ikelihood x2 399.62 289.56 284.32D.F. 414 641 640Note: All significance tests are one-tailed; * p


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562 AMERICANSOCIOLOGICALREVIEWblue-collarworkersto entercareer adders(orsimilarly for white-collarworkers), then thedeterminantsof career ladder entrance maydiffer for the sexes because we are dealingwith different types of career ladders. 18 Iinvestigatedthis further.Equivalentlylow proportionsof blue- andwhite-collar women enter career tracks (7percent). White-collar men, on the otherhand, are significantly more likely to enter acareer ladder (27 percent) than blue-collarmen (14 percent). Given this, I ran regres-sions for white-collar men's and women'sentrance ntocareer addersto see whether heresults differed from the previous results forall workers. The results for white-collarwomen are the same as for all women. Theresults for white-collarmen are also the sameas the general results for men, with onemodification: father's employment is notsignificant for white-collarmen. A regressionon blue-collar men shows that men withblue-collar or white-collar (non-self-em-ployed) fathers have higher probabilitiesofentering career-trackpositions. For youngmen entering the labor market, then, theeffect of father's self-employment differsaccording to whether the young male is in ablue- or white-collar occupation. It may bethat the career-track ate of young men inblue-collaroccupations s affectedby father'sself-employed/employeestatus because it isyoung blue-collar men who would be mostapt to work in a family business if such anopportunityexisted.

CONCLUSIONThe first half of the paper documentedJapanesewomen's participation n the econ-omy and investigated gender stratificationpatternsusing availableaggregatedata. Japa-nese women participate n the labor force atrates similar to women in other industrialnations but are less likely to work asemployees. And among the employee laborforce, the male-femalewage gap is greater nJapanand women's representationn manage-rial ranks is lower. As women move acrossthe life cycle, they are morelikely to work infamily businesses; older women who areemployees are also more likely thanyounger

18 Iowe thismodificationo thecomments f ananonymouseviewer.

women to work in small firms. Thesefindingsfrom aggregategovernmentstatisticscoupledwith ethnographicevidence suggest thatveryfew Japanese women find their way intocareerladders at the startof their work lives.Rather, they are apt to work as temporaryemployees in low-level clericalpositions.The second half of the paperprobedthesefindings using microlevel data. While about30 percent of each sex enter largefirmswhenthey initially startworking, women are muchless likely to enter career ladders (theJapanese "permanentemployment system")than men: 22 percent of men and only 7percentof women have such an experience.Among the populationentering large firms,twice as manywomen as menenteras clericalworkers, andthe majorityof these womenarein low-level "assistantclerical"positions.Although not always statistically differentfor men and women, the effect of humancapital variables (ability and education) onmen's entranceinto large firms and career-trackpositions is generally strongerthan forwomen. High-ability women have a higherprobability of entering career ladders thanother women, but larger increments ofeducation do not significantly help women.Family background variables do not exertsignificanteffects on entrance nto largefirmsfor either sex. But childrenof self-employedfathers are significantly less likely to entercareer-trackpositions in large firms. Thiscould be due to some unmeasureddisadvan-tage or to less interest on the part of theseindividuals in the long-term participation ncorporateor factory work that a career-trackposition implies. This will be interestingtoinvestigate in future work, as will thenegative effect of mother's employment ondaughter's probabilityof entering a career-track ob. Finally, employers'oft-cited reluc-tance to hire women into career laddersbecause of women's lack of labor forceattachment is supported by a test of thathypothesis.The paper demonstrates that the stronggender stratificationpatternsin the Japaneseeconomy are already apparentat the begin-ningof individuals' worklives. But we wouldnot have seen this were our focus only on thedistributionof men and women in the large-and small-firmsectors of the economy whenthey startworking,for this sex distributionseven. This points to the importance ofattemptingto measurecareer-ladderposition


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GENDER STRATIFICATIONN JAPAN 563and constructing such a measure in aculturally appropriatefashion. Researchershave asserted that the first job is critical forfuture wages and promotions n the Japanesecontext;futurework should address he extentto whichJapanesewomen arehandicappednlater life by their initial failure to entercareerladders.On a more upbeat note, the Japanese Dietratified an Equal Employment OpportunityLaw in spring 1985, after years of debatewithin the LaborMinistry,employers' groups,laborunions, and women's associations. Thelaw prohibitssex discriminationn all phasesof the employment process from recruitmentto retirement,butno penaltiesareimposedonemployers who do not conform. A recentcheck of classified advertisementsn Japanesenewspapers shows that some employerscontinue to recruiton the basis of sex as wellas age. The effectiveness of the law willdepend heavily on the degree to which localadministrativeunits set up by the Japanesegovernment monitor businesses, and thedegree to which firms find it in their interestto gradually move away from a statisticaldiscriminationrule that reserves the greatmajority of career positions for men. Futureresearchon genderstratificationn Japanwillneed to addressthis new exogenous influenceon the operationof labor markets.In conclusion, the findingsin this paperareconsistent with argumentsin the Americansociological literature that internal labormarket structures are disadvantageous towomen. Japan representsa prototypicalcaseof such structures, where employers andnewly recruitedemployees make an implicitbargain o engage in a long-term employmentrelationship. As Japanese industries facecollective belt-tighteningand permanentem-ployment even for men becomes less takenfor granted, the internal labor market struc-tureis beginningto exhibit cracks. The effectof these changes on gender stratificationpatternswill be fascinatingto observe.

MARY BRINTON is Assistant Professor ofSociology at The Universityof Chicago. Herinterests are in the areasof genderstratifica-tion, contemporary Japanese society, andrationalchoice theoreticapplications o socialinstitutional ssues. She is currentlycomplet-ing a book on the role of women in theJapaneseeconomy.

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