Most doctrinal understandings of gender in Japanese new religions consist of a tolerant approach that sacralizes motherhood and family while acknowledging the need for a women-friendly society where women can become more involved in the economy. This is not unrelated to government discourses blending neoliberal ideals of work-life balance with a rooted family ideology that still assigns women to the home and men to the workplace. As it happens, in order to generate economic growth amid a trend of falling childbirth and a hyper-ageing society, Japanese women are now facing the mutually contradictory pressure to take active roles in the labour market while also being subjected to the urgent demand to fulfill their role as mothers. With Japanese women trapped in what I call the ‘neoliberal motherhood’ discourse, Japanese new religions become places where moral conversations on how to achieve both goals can take place. The purpose of this study is to present examples from three Japanese new religions (Risshō kōseikai, Sōka Gakkai and God Light Association) that operate against the background of contemporary post-secular Japan where the majority of the Japanese claim to be ‘non-religious.’ This paper will discuss how women adherents both legitimate and subvert traditional practices and discourses about femininity by articulating the neoliberal motherhood discourse through the teachings, practices and social contribution activities of their sponsoring organization. The results of this narrative inquire shows that while contemporary Japanese new religious organizations give women a place to discuss their motherhood and carry out work-like activities without challenging power structures and the existing gender order, by valuing their subjective self-awareness and offering opportunities to examine their life-choices those groups provide women with alternatives to live more affirmatively, while also cultivating an attitude to resist such social pressure. This realization constitutes a maturation of the individual accompanied by some level of emancipation from normative and pressing social expectations.

Articulating the neoliberal motherhood discourse : visions of gender in Japanese new religions / P. Cavaliere - In: The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender and Society / [a cura di] C. Starkey, E. Tomalin. - [s.l] : Routledge, 2021. - ISBN 9781032161402. - pp. 289-306 [10.4324/9780429466953-22]

Articulating the neoliberal motherhood discourse : visions of gender in Japanese new religions

P. Cavaliere
Primo
Writing – Review & Editing
2021

Abstract

Most doctrinal understandings of gender in Japanese new religions consist of a tolerant approach that sacralizes motherhood and family while acknowledging the need for a women-friendly society where women can become more involved in the economy. This is not unrelated to government discourses blending neoliberal ideals of work-life balance with a rooted family ideology that still assigns women to the home and men to the workplace. As it happens, in order to generate economic growth amid a trend of falling childbirth and a hyper-ageing society, Japanese women are now facing the mutually contradictory pressure to take active roles in the labour market while also being subjected to the urgent demand to fulfill their role as mothers. With Japanese women trapped in what I call the ‘neoliberal motherhood’ discourse, Japanese new religions become places where moral conversations on how to achieve both goals can take place. The purpose of this study is to present examples from three Japanese new religions (Risshō kōseikai, Sōka Gakkai and God Light Association) that operate against the background of contemporary post-secular Japan where the majority of the Japanese claim to be ‘non-religious.’ This paper will discuss how women adherents both legitimate and subvert traditional practices and discourses about femininity by articulating the neoliberal motherhood discourse through the teachings, practices and social contribution activities of their sponsoring organization. The results of this narrative inquire shows that while contemporary Japanese new religious organizations give women a place to discuss their motherhood and carry out work-like activities without challenging power structures and the existing gender order, by valuing their subjective self-awareness and offering opportunities to examine their life-choices those groups provide women with alternatives to live more affirmatively, while also cultivating an attitude to resist such social pressure. This realization constitutes a maturation of the individual accompanied by some level of emancipation from normative and pressing social expectations.
Japanese Religions; Gender; Motherhood
Settore ASIA-01/G - Lingua e letteratura del Giappone, lingua e letteratura della Corea
2021
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1115673
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