Social Stratification and the Division of Household Labor in Japan: The Effect of Wives' Work on the Division of Labor among Dual-earner Families

Abstract:  This article explores the relationship between social stratification and the division of household labor by examining how the contribution to housework by husbands in dual-earner families varies across the Japanese social stratification structure. First, I review previous studies concerning the determinants of husbands' participation in housework and construct four hypotheses regarding the relative resources explanation, the time constraints explanation, the ideology/sex role explanation, and the alternative manpower explanation. Second, I examine the empirical support for these hypotheses in dual-earner couples and the effect of social stratification on husband's participation in housework, which has not been studied thus far. Third, I investigate the effect of social stratification in more detail. According to the results of TOBIT regressions and other supplementary analyses, the principal findings are as follows:

• 1) 

  the relative resources explanation is not supported;

       

Premarital Cohabitation and Housework: Couples in Cross‐National Perspective

The authors examine the effect of premarital cohabitation on the division of household labor in 22 countries. First, women do more routine housework than men in all countries. Second, married couples that cohabited before marriage have a more equal division of housework. Third, national cohabitation rates have equalizing effects on couples regardless of their own cohabitation experience. However, the influence of cohabitation rates is only observed in countries with higher levels of overall gender equality. The authors conclude that the trend toward increasing cohabitation may be part of a broader social trend toward a more egalitarian division of housework.     

长三角近海海洋环境管理立法研究

长江三角洲经济区海洋经济发展势头强劲，但同时其近海也饱受海水水质恶化、赤潮灾害频发、海洋生态非健康等环境问题的困扰。长三角近海环境问题的解决需要一种特殊的环境管理方式，即区域海洋环境管理，这是海洋环境管理理论不断发展创新的成果，可以起到解决自然区域与行政区划之间的矛盾、协调多方利益和中观管理的有益补充作用。本文拟探讨通过贯彻区域海洋环境管理理念，创设适用于长三角毗邻海域的、针对海洋环境管理的区域性法律文件，来治理与维护这一海洋区域的环境，从而为其海洋经济发展创造有利条件，提供良好的环境依托，使发展走上可持续的道路。     

Attracting Micro‐Enterprises To Learning

Micro‐enterprises, i.e. firms with less than 10 employees, are traditionally the hardest to engage in learning; they are also least likely to participate in such measures as business advice and guidance provision and initiatives to support information communication technology (ICT) adoption. Through a community‐based initiative initially targeting parents (unemployed or employed) to participate in ICT, 30 micro‐enterprises were attracted to learning for the first time. These companies had carefully avoided similar initiatives taking place locally, which emphasized business success and growth; they had only participated in this ICT skills training because of their children. The paper takes a case study approach to evaluate the reasons for participation, explores barriers and implications for those organizing similar activities, and calls for a more holistic view of owners and managers of small firms as fathers, mothers, etc. rather than just as ‘entrepreneurs’.     

刑法罪名简繁利弊辩--以中、日刑事立法比较为例

近年来,在刑事司法中时常遇到这样的问题1997年才全面修订的、有400多个罪名的刑法典对一些犯罪案件却难以适用.通过对中、日两国刑事立法的比较分析,探讨了刑法罪名简略与繁缛的利弊得失.认为罪名的简繁各有利弊,但简略利大于弊;法的特性决定罪名的高度概括性;刑法的适用需要法官的判断和推理;关键是尽快改革司法体制,大力提高法官的整体素质.     

Some Notes on Workplace Equality Renewal in the Swedish Labour Market

In 2001, Swedish authorities imposed a new obligation upon all firms with ten or more employees to undertake annual wage surveys, ‘workplace equality audits’ in which it is possible to ascertain, remedy and prevent unwarranted wage differentials and other unfair employment terms between men and women. An important implication of the new system, called ‘workplace equality renewal’ (självsanering), is that, at the level of the firm all Swedish employers must explain what they mean by work of ‘equal value’ as opposed to ‘different value’. This article discusses the practical pros and cons of the new system, and considers how the surveys can be used in research into the present state of gendered work division. A main finding is that the introduction of this new legislation in the long run might change the Swedish industrial relations system as well as the preconditions for many companies’ human resource management policies. Yet, neither the governmental agencies involved nor the parties’ confederate organizations have been able to clarify what the issue is really about to the single, small business employer or to the local trade union branches. Many employers find any interference, whatever it may be, threatening and trade unions have not realized the potentialities of the system from an employee perspective, potentialities connected to the fact that companies are now more or less forced to make transparent their wage policies at large.     

The Division of Household Labor in Germany and Israel

We compare the patterns of household division of labor in Germany and Israel—two countries that share key elements of the corporatist welfare regime but differ in their gender regimes—and evaluate several hypotheses using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Program. Although time constraints and relative resources affect the division of household labor and women’s housework in both societies, we find that in Germany the gender order of household labor is more rigid, whereas in Israel the spouses’ linked labor market status exerts distinctive effects. We also find significant relationships between gender ideology and the division of household labor. We discuss the theoretical advantages of approaching the comparative study of gender inequality from the vantage point of family and gender regimes.     

我国农村人口出生性别比偏高的动力机制研究

B超的滥用、强烈的男孩偏好以及对非法流产行为监控的失效共同构成我国出生性别比偏高的充要条件,三者中任一条件不满足都不可能出现出生性别比偏高。尽管B超发明和滥用前出生性别比并没有异常,但也不能说出生性别比偏高与受教育水平、传统文化等因素无关。事实上,这些因素通过影响男孩偏好和B超的可获得性而影响出生性别比。由此出发,促进出生性别比回复正常,短期内应标本兼治,以治标为主———坚决禁止B超的滥用,关键是加强立法和管理;长期内则必须治本———消除男孩偏好,关键是加速农村城市化。     

外部经济、企业分工与产业集聚

从资源共享、专业化生产、交易成本的节约、创新利益四个方面分析了产业集聚的经济动因;采用超边际分析方法建立了企业分工模型,并在此基础上推演出产业集群的自组织演化模型。认为外部经济是产业集聚的经济动因,企业分工协作关系的产生和深化则是产业集群形成和发展的关键。     

国际公法对弱者的保护及其完善

鉴于弱者保护已成为国际社会普遍关注的热点问题,但时下无论是国内立法还是社会各界对弱者的特殊保护都不同程度地存在一些认识问题或实际问题,依照国际社会公认的保护弱者的国际公约,在对其一系列原则、制度和规则予以详细阐述的基础上,提出进一步完善该方面国际国内立法的思考和建议。