Abstract
The reality of globalization, in contemporary society, brings to the fore the differences or confrontations between women in the world, rather than the feminist “idea of global sisterhood”. Two women, for example a white professional woman and a colored woman working as a “second mother, ” are inescapably thrown into an unbalanced power relationship. How can they have a free and equal relationship, a new, difficult relationship that can be called “a public relationship in the private sphere”?
Based on such interests, this paper aims to reveal the on-going change in the assumption of the public-private distinction on which the structure of modern society has been founded. First, we focus on the essential difference among household tasks, particularly child rearing and cleaning, in order to examine the peculiarity of the private sphere. Second, we consider how we can construct a free and equal relationship between women of diametrically different nationalities, cultures, customs, lifestyles and so on, keeping intact our respect for each other's dignity. Finally, we attempt to explain that to respect others is to respect their private spheres as the space of a free mind.
