Special Issue
A Historical Analysis of Social Segregation in Female Labor:
A Focus on Maternity Leave Substitute Jobs from 1945-75
2018 Volume 69 Issue 3 Pages 390-405
Details
2018 Volume 69 Issue 3 Pages 390-405
This paper describes the problem of social segregation, which has grown in recent years, the achievement of the continued regular employment of women, and the emergence of women in non-regular employment who work as substitutes during regular employees' maternity leave. We will focus on the maternity leave substitute teacher's system, which was realized in 1961.
A previous study insisted that this system achieved the continued employment of women after childbirth. However, we can demonstrate that the system had a problem in that non-permanent substitute teachers supported the permanent teachers. This is similar to the female labor situation in recent years; while regular women continue to work after maternity leave, women in irregular employment have fragmented careers.
However, previous studies have failed to regard the process of establishing the maternity-leave substitute-teacher system. Subsequently, I considered, an interview survey and historical document analysis, how the maternity-leave substitute-teacher system was formed, and whether the problem of the gap between regular and irregular employees interfered with the institutional establishment process.
As a result, female teachers revealed that they attempted to overcome negative treatment by paying attention to the treatment of substitute teachers during maternity leave at the time of the development of the system. However, the movement did not spread beyond gender, and they could not achieve the original concept of maternity leave substitute teachers becoming regular employees pooled in each city. This historical case suggests that it is difficult to overcome “gender disparity.” It also suggests that the stratification of female workers, for example, permanent employees or non-permanent employees, is likely if a comprehensive view of female labor including diverse social segregation is not undertaken when we think about the contemporary policy issues of women's labor force development.
