Gender power under female leadership: a local women’s association in Japan

Abstract

In this article I examine the major activities of one of Japan's local women's associations (fujinkai),1 the Yosugi Women's Association (YWA),2 to demonstrate how women exercise power by utilizing gender roles in voluntary community activities.3 Since women's unpaid labor in structured organizations in the public sphere has been a topic of study over the last decade,4 exploring how the concept of gender has enhanced the significance of women in unpaid community activities is timely. Voluntary work has been underestimated in labor history, women's history, and feminist theories, and is in need of a proper theoretical framework. In addition, I observed characteristics of women in this local voluntary association and show that the patterns of members' behavior challenge longstanding stereotypes.