Women's Wages and Empowerment: Pre-industrial Japan, 1600-1890

Yuzuru Kumon and Kazuho Sakai

No 2022-05, CEI Working Paper Series from Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: Using new evidence from servant contracts, 1600-1890, we estimate women's wages in Japan. Women's wages could only sustain 1.5-2 people up to 1900, the lowest recorded in the pre-industrial world. We then show the gender wage ratio was 0.7, higher than in Western Europe. Despite this, Japan had lower female empowerment for two reasons. First, absolute wages were low, so women were not economically autonomous. Second, landownership incomes were mostly earned by men, raising their bargaining positions. Low female empowerment in Japan could also explain the early and universal marriage of its women unlike their empowered Western European counterparts.

Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2022-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:hitcei:2022-05

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