Ambivalent ‘Selves’ in Transition: a case study of Japanese women studying in Australian universities

Abstract

In an age of globalisation and internationalisation, how women learn to conceptualise their cultural identities, gender perceptions, and their representations in the wider world is significant. A study of four Japanese women in postgraduate courses in three Australian universities, part of a larger study, is presented here to portray the women's lived experiences and interpret how higher education overseas affected their career aspirations and constructs of Japanese femininity. Firstly, the analytic framework within a discussion of globalisation of higher education, and discourses of identity and self, is set; secondly, the present status of Japanese women in contemporary Japan is analysed. Finally, excerpts of the women's narratives which indicate ambivalent ‘selves’ in transition are used as a way into a discussion of the concepts of ‘femininity’ and ‘Japaneseness’.