Working Women of Japan

A wide-ranging survey of working-class women charts how industrial change reshapes traditional social orders and domestic life. It describes rural families and household industries, silk and factory labor, artisans' and merchants' households, baby-tenders, domestic servants, hotel and tea-house employees, and the roles of geisha and licensed prostitutes. The text examines cultural and religious constraints on women, highlights the economic and moral pressures of modernization, and outlines charitable and institutional responses led largely by Christian reformers. Practical ameliorative efforts are illustrated through case studies of rescue and training institutions, including a detailed account of a working girls' home in Matsuyama.