FEMININE CAPITAL: The Forms of Capital in the Female Labor Market in Japan

There are many studies of the effect of human capital on individual labor market out-comes and on the contribution of educational institutions to an individual's human, social, and cultural capital. Logistic regression analyses, using data on women's job placement in Japan, showed that a feminine characteristics and support from school were important for being hired by large companies for clerical jobs. This paper argues that there are forms of capital that are specific to women's employment outcome in the Japanese labor market. This lays the basis for gender discrimination and a "glass ceiling" on women's advancement in corporate Japan.     

Women's & Gender Studies Journal Database

Abstract

The Women's & Gender Studies Journal Database (WGSJD) at Rutgers University is a user-oriented, discipline-based database that provides quick access to journal titles available online. It is also a union list of journal titles, print and online, in the area of women's and gender studies at Rutgers University Libraries. The author describes this database and its value-added service in the context of Rutgers University Libraries' information system. Discussion also includes its advantages and disadvantages, the changing roles and areas of responsibilities for subject selectors, and how the database fits into future developments of the library's information system. Serials Review 2002; 28:261–266.     

The Network Autocorrelation Model using Two-mode Data: Affiliation Exposure and Potential Bias in the Autocorrelation Parameter

The network autocorrelation model has been a workhorse for modeling network influences on individual behavior. The standard network approaches to mapping social influence using network measures, however, are limited to specifying an influence weight matrix (W) based on a single mode network. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that the estimate of the autocorrelation parameter ρ of the network effect tends to be negatively biased as the density in W matrix increases. The current study introduces a two-mode version of the network autocorrelation model. We then conduct simulations to examine conditions under which bias might exist. We show that the estimate for the affiliation autocorrelation parameter (ρ) tends to be negatively biased as density increases, as in the one-mode case. Inclusion of the diagonal of W, the count of the number of events participated in, as one of the variables in the regression model helps to attenuate such bias, however. We discuss the implications of these results.     

Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea

In this study, we compared the association of marital satisfaction with the division of household labor in China, Japan, and Korea. Results revealed that wives’ marital satisfaction was negatively associated with their burden of housework in the three Asian countries, as generally observed in Western countries. However, there were noticeable cross-country differences. Chinese couples were relatively in favor of an egalitarian division of household labor. Japanese couples were supportive of traditional specialization, with wives flexibly shifting their efforts between work outside the house and housework. Korean couples were under pressure from conflicts between the wife’s labor force participation and the traditional division of labor. These findings underscored the importance of the socio-institutional context in the study of marital satisfaction.     

The increasingly high sex ratio and lifelong unmarried rate in Japan

In Japan, the ratio of never-married men to married men has risen rapidly since the second half of the 1980s. In this paper, we focus on the disruption of the gender balance, and on the effect that this and education level have on marriage behaviour. We confirmed that the rise in the population of never-married men has a negative influence on the probability that men will marry; however, it does not affect women’s behaviour. The effects of education in relation to the probability of marrying are positive for men, and negative for women. Generally, a low educational background is associated with low income and our results predict that elderly single men will tend to be of low socio-economic status. The present social security system is substantially reliant on the assumption that most single older people have families. An increase in aged single men in recent years means a new social security system is required.     

Variations in network boundary and type: A study of adolescent peer influences

This study compares variation in network boundary and network type on network indicators such as degree and estimates of social influences on adolescent substance use. We compare associations between individual use and peer use of tobacco and alcohol when network boundary (e.g., classroom, entire grade in school, and community) and relational type (elicited by asking whom students: (a) are friends with, (b) admire, (c) think will succeed, (d) would like to have a romantic relationship with, and (e) think are popular) are varied. Additionally, we estimate Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) for 232 networks to obtain a homophily estimate for smoking and drinking. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 1707 adolescents in five high schools in one school district in Los Angeles, CA. Results of logistic regression models show that associations were strongest when the boundary condition was least constrained and that associations were stronger for friendship networks than for other ones. Additionally, ERGM estimations show that grade-level friendship networks returned significant homophily effects more frequently than the classroom networks. This study validates existing theoretical approaches to the network study of social influence as well as ways to estimate them. We recommend researchers use as broad a boundary as possible when collecting network data, but observe that for some research purposes more narrow boundaries may be preferred.     

The Organizational Practice of Gendered Employment: Disparate Impact and Gender Segregation in the Japanese Entry-Level Labor Market

Abstract

This article discusses the supposedly “gender-neutral” Japanese organizational hiring practice of using a track-based employment system. In this system, prospective employees are required to accept nationwide transfers in residence to obtain career-track positions. Women have difficulty fulfilling this requirement because of cultural expectations to settle down and tend to domestic affairs (day care is often hard to access). Using job placement data on graduates from a Japanese university, I found that women are more likely to be hired into firms without this track system, where they are mostly hired for non-career-track positions. Therefore, seemingly gender-neutral bureaucratic rules actually disparately affect women, maintaining gender inequality in the corporate-centered economy of Japan.     

Bridging: Locating critical connectors in a network

This paper proposes several measures for bridging in networks derived from Granovetter's (1973) insight that links which reduce distances in a network are important structural bridges. Bridging is calculated by systematically deleting links and calculating the resultant changes in network cohesion (measured as the inverse average path length). The average change for each node's links provides an individual level measure of bridging. We also present a normalized version which controls for network size and a network-level bridging index. Bridging properties are demonstrated on hypothetical networks, empirical networks, and a set of 100 randomly generated networks to show how the bridging measure correlates with existing network measures such as degree, personal network density, constraint, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and vitality. Bridging and the accompanying methodology provide a family of new network measures useful for studying network structure, network dynamics, and network effects on substantive behavioral phenomenon.     

Women's & Gender Studies Journal Database: A Rutgers Experience

The Women's & Gender Studies Journal Database (WGSJD) at Rutgers University is a user-oriented, discipline-based database that provides quick access to journal titles available online. It is also a union list of journal titles, print and online, in the area of women's and gender studies at Rutgers University Libraries. The author describes this database and its value-added service in the context of Rutgers University Libraries' information system. Discussion also includes its advantages and disadvantages, the changing roles and areas of responsibilities for subject selectors, and how the database fits into future developments of the library's information system. Serials Review 2002; 28:261–266.     

Relative Income and Happiness in Asia: Evidence from Nationwide Surveys in China, Japan, and Korea

This study attempts to examine relative income effects on perceived happiness in three major Asian countries—China, Japan, and Korea—in comparison with the United Sates, on the basis of largely comparable nationwide surveys in these countries. Consistent with the results from previous studies in Western countries, comparisons with an individual’s own income and average income of the reference group are significantly associated with the individual’s perceived happiness in Asia. The associations between relative income and happiness are stronger for individual income than family income in China, while the opposite is true in Japan and Korea. Even after controlling for the subjective assessment of family income or personal class identification within the society as a whole, income comparisons within the reference group matter for assessing happiness, especially when using family income for comparisons. Moreover, relative deprivation within the reference group, which is measured by the Yitzhaki index, is negatively related to happiness, providing more evidence for the validity of the relative income hypothesis.