Gender, work, and ‘independence’:
Work trajectories of Japanese single mothers 

Conference report
International Oral History Association meeting
Prague, Czech Republic
7-11 July 2010

Aya Ezawa
Japanese Studies
Leiden Institute for Area Studies

The work trajectories of single mothers are a topic of increasing interest among contemporary welfare states. To limit single mothers’ reliance on state assistance, many governments have introduced ‘welfare-to-work’ programs to promote their entry into the workforce and ‘independence’ through work. But to support single mothers’ ability to move from ‘welfare’ to work, and earn a living wage is often not as simple as it sounds. Despite efforts to provide information, consultation, vocational training and hands-on workshops aimed to motivate single mothers to work, many programs have had mixed results and few single mothers find full-time jobs with a living wage.

To explore this issue, this conference presentation examined the work experiences of single mothers in Japan from a life historical perspective. As part of a session entitled: “The World of Work: Gender and the perception of labor,” at the International Oral History Association meeting, it contributed to a broad discussion of the varied meanings of work in everyday life.

Based on 50 life history interviews conducted with single mothers in Japan, the presentation explored single mothers’ experiences and perspectives and work, as well as the challenges of combining work with motherhood. Japanese single mothers’ life stories show that the ‘problems’ they face in finding work and earning an income do not only have to do with their education or credentials, but also with the gender aspects of their work trajectories. They illustrate the constraints they face as women and mothers in the world of work, as well as how their perspectives on work and career were shaped by their life trajectories. In approaching single mothers’ work experience based on personal accounts rather than statistical indicators, the paper demonstrated the usefulness of life history interviews as a means to reveal the structures and mechanisms, which limit single mothers’ work experiences and their ability to be upwardly mobile despite equal educational opportunities. Such approach should also allow us to critically examine gendered assumptions about the meaning of work and the preconditions for becoming economically independent through work.

As part of the annual meeting of the International Oral History Association, the paper and session contributed to a broader methodological discussion on the usefulness of personal memories not only for the interpretation of history, but also for the current social policy debates. While considered a radical approach in the field of history at the time of its emergence, oral history today has become recognized as an important means to not only document but explain the personal experiences and perspectives behind social trends and as an important means to develop effective policy solutions.