2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This panel of four papers is a dual celebration, with Japanese snacks, of the first U.S. presentation by Teruko Inoue, a widely published founding mother of women's studies in Japan, and the publication of Rethinking Japanese Feminisms, Julia Bullock, Ayako Kano, James Welker, editors. While the presenters have taught, researched, and authored books on Japanese women in disciplines ranging from history to sociology, women's studies, and cultural studies, we plan to engage a general audience as well as scholars in interrogating issues related to the diversity of Japanese responses to capitalism and feminisms for over more than a century. Chair Uno's brief overview on the development of Japanese capitalism with its gendered labor force in domestic and global contexts plus selected maneuvers of accommodation and resistance frames the panel. The papers present a varied range of encounters with and commitments to feminism, including socialist Diet member, party and organizational leader, and women's advocate Sumiko Tanaka's thought and activities in postwar social and political spheres, 1960s-1980s (Inoue); ordinary homemakers' accommodations to new possibilities for women in the 1920s and early postwar era (Sato); lesbians' engagement with feminist thinking and actions since the 1970s (Welker); and a critical analysis of Womenomics, current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's neoliberal gestures toward feminism (Kano). Twelve-minute papers allow ample time for comments and questions. Furthermore, a handout with a chronology; paper titles and abstracts; and a list of suggested reading will encourage thinking about Japanese gendered encounters with feminisms under capitalism after the panel concludes. Discussant: the audience.