Gendered Space in the 1930s

Abstract

In 1930, the Japanese government first began providing housing for working women. A branch of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Dojunkai, was organized as a government-assisted association for the supply of public housing. The main purpose of the Dojunkai was to provide housing for the victimes of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. One of the Dojunkai apartment house, the Otsuka joshi apartment house was developed for the express purpose of supporting the many women who had left their families in order to work outside the home. Western feminist geographers have argued that residential living spaces can reinforce gender inequalities. The research presented here supports these claims and takes them a step further: by constructing the gendered residential facility, I argue that the Japanese state acted as a classic patriarchal institution, subordinating these economically independent women through its control of residential space. In essence, the state-as-landlord represented a surrogate father to these single women. These power relations within the private residence function as the basis of the ordering of daily life and thus this study of the Otsuka joshi apartment house provides a unique opportunity to examine how the state permeates the lives of Japanese women.This research project examines the experiences of long-term residents of the Otsuka joshi apartment house in the context of the social and economic transformation which Japan was undergoing in the 1930s. Between 1920 and 1930, the number of working women nearly doubled (from 1, 370, 000 to 2, 260, 000 women). While most of these women continued to live in the family home, the lifestyles of working women changed dramatically and some women lived apart from their families. In response, the Dojunkai built the women's housing unit.Methodologically, the project includes interviews and archival research. In-depth interviews with the residents of the Otsuka joshi apartment house who have remained there since the 1930s were conducted (3 out of 8 remaining residents, interviewed periodically from 1995 to the present). The narratives of these women are explored in the context of the broader historical changes affecting their lives in the prewar and war-time periods. In addition, these women's narratives are supplemented by a survey of articles in Fujin Koron, a popular magazine, that featured the Otsuka joshi apartment house. The second part of the paper focuses on the lifestyle of these early working women, while part 3 investigates why and how the Dojunkai promoted a gendered residential facility and how residents lived there.On the whole, the female residents of the Otsuka joshi apartment house were happy to reside in this relatively expensive facility. In general, the public perception also appears to have been favorable. The house was complete with all the current amenities, including a greenhouse, music room and an in-house restaurant (residents were not allowed to cook in their rooms). Given that the facility was constructed in a district with a high population of teachers (19.4% of the total population, of which 19.09% were women), it is likely that the facility was built to house single female teachers. Moreover, the monthly income, over 50 yen, was rather high. Only women teachers and a few other professionals, then, would have been able to afford such accommodation. In addition to teachers, local bureaucrats, professional musicians and nurses also lived in the Otsuka joshi apartments.While the in-depth interviews (part 4, sections 1 and 2) confirm that these women were content with the level of independence and security that they enjoyed, Otsuka joshi residents had to conform to the strict controls of their state landlord. For example, the entrance of men into the facility was strictly monitored and a curfew was enforced by 11 o'clock each evening.