History

Gender has been an important issue in the Japanese Culture, but the cultural elaboration of gender differences has had problems over time and among different social classes. In the twelfth century (Heian period), for example, women could inherit property in their own names and manage it by themselves.Later, under feudal governments, the status of women declined. Peasant women continued to have the freedom and power of decisionmaking , but upper-class women's lives were subject their husband ideology supported by the government like a part of its efforts of social control. With an early industrialization, young women participated in factory work under  unhealthy working conditions without gaining personal autonomy or independecy . A little bit later with the  industrialization and urbanization,there was  a low in  the authority of fathers and husbands, but at the same time a (Meiji) Civil Code denied women legal rights and obliged  them to the will of household heads .Peasant women were less affected by the institutionalization of this trend, but it slowly spread even to remote areas. In the 1930s and 1940s the government encouraged the formation of women's associations  applauded high fertility and  motherhood was rook as  a patriotic duty to the Japanese Empire.

A few years before World War II, the role of the japanese women was very poor. The Constitution at that time didn´t aprove the equality of the sexes and they didn´t have the opportunity to vote or at least to have the right itself . According to the Civil Code, wifes were considered as incompetent, and their  rights, and their rights as mother  were restricted

After the War, the new Constitution was promulgated in 1946 said that women and men were equal under the law.  Then the Civil Code was revised, and several range of domestic laws were changed, so there were a lot of improvements in the legal status of women in the family, the workplace and in society.

Since 1960, the fast growth of their economy brought  big socio-economic changes such as rise of and scientific/technological progress or  some living standards. These changes and with a lower birth rate,longer life expectancy and a high educational standard affected the normal family life, and specially the lives of women.

Women began to be part of a greater economic and social activity. However, the because of  the traditional concept that women must  stay at home,this concept  is still believed by people and is deeply rooted.