1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910798556303321

Autore

Zacharias-Walsh Anne

Titolo

Our unions, our selves : the rise of feminist labor unions in Japan / / Anne Zacharias-Walsh

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca : , : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, , 2016

ISBN

1-5017-0689-6

1-5017-0636-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource

Classificazione

MH 48260

Disciplina

331.88082/0952

Soggetti

Women labor union members - Japan

Women in the labor movement - Japan

Sex discrimination in employment - Japan

Sex role in the work environment - Japan

Feminism - Japan

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Previously issued in print: 2016.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

A union of one's own -- A tale of two activists -- Women's Union Tokyo in practice -- First, we drink tea -- Under the microscope -- Crisis of difference -- Made in Japan -- A movement transformed.

Sommario/riassunto

In Our Unions, Our Selves, Anne Zacharias-Walsh provides an in-depth look at the rise of women-only unions in Japan, an organizational analysis of the challenges these new unions face in practice, and a firsthand account of the ambitious, occasionally contentious, and ultimately successful international solidarity project that helped to spark a new feminist labor movement.In the early 1990s, as part of a larger wave of union reform efforts in Japan, women began creating their own women-only labor unions to confront long-standing gender inequality in the workplace and in traditional enterprise unions. These new unions soon discovered that the demand for individual assistance and help at the bargaining table dramatically exceeded the rate at which the unions could recruit and train members to meet that demand. Within just a few years, women-only unions were proving to be both the most effective option women had for addressing problems on the job and in serious danger of dying out because of their inability



to grow their organizational capacity.Zacharias-Walsh met up with Japanese women's unions at a critical moment in their struggle to survive. Recognizing the benefits of a cross-national dialogue, they teamed up to host a multiyear international exchange project that brought together U.S. and Japanese activists and scholars to investigate the links between organizational structure and the day-to-day problems nontraditional unions face, and to develop Japan-specific participatory labor education as a way to organize and empower new generations of members. They also gained valuable insights into the fine art of building and maintaining the kinds of collaborative, cross border relationships that are essential to today's social justice movements, from global efforts to save the environment to the Fight for