Japanese Young Adult Female Professional Elevation and Fertility

Japanese Young Adult Female Professional Elevation and Fertility

Noriyo Shoji-Schaffner | 2017

Abstract

In effort to reverse Japan’s declining fertility rate, researchers have contemplated the causal connection between gender equality, female labor participation, and female fertility. Since Japan’s economic recession began in the 1990s, coupled with globalization of finance- and production-based markets exerting neoliberal pressures on the Japanese employers to increase competitiveness by introducing market-oriented corporate strategies, the female workforce has undergone profound transitions as an increasing percentage of women has sought to establish long-term careers. However, the demographic evidence has indicated only one fourth of young adult women entering the workforce have remained on the long-term career track while the remaining three fourths of young adult women have dropped out of the workforce to pursue domestic responsibilities. For those young adult women who have chosen to remain in the workforce, the question has remained whether they are committed to pursue marriage and fulfill parenthood thus to prove the positive correlations between gender equality, female labor participation, and female fertility. This study applied a qualitative psychological phenomenology approach to discover the actual experiences of seven Japanese young adult female professionals as the representation of new female labor force creating new social identities through the mutual conditioning of work and family life structures. Through psychological phenomenological approach, consisting of content analysis of varied methods of interview findings, this study explored what motivates these young adult female professionals to identify with one fourth of young adult women in Japan who have chosen to stay on the long-term career track and how they reconfigure notions of committed relationships, marriage, and parenthood.