It has been said that each person plays his or her own role in society. Many decades ago, the role of the man was that of the caretaker; he was responsible for financial matters and status of the family. The role of the woman was as the homemaker; she was responsible for affairs of the home and the well-being of the family. These roles have since changed. In the modern society, man and woman both play the roles of the caretaker and the homemaker. The rights and status of women across the world has improved considerably over the centuries. .
The liberation of women across the world can be viewed as an evolutionary process. It requires time to abandon long-held traditions and attitudes and adopt more unifying and equal ideals. Women have long-fought for gender equality, in respect to, work, wages, salary, and opportunities, among other issues. Peoples attitudes towards women are slowly starting to change and more opportunities are being made available for them. The unequal treatment of women will take years to change and will always remain an important issue.
The status of women in Japan has changed greatly over the years since the end of the World War II (Shinotsuka 1989). Before the war, Japanese women lived in a patriarchal society. They were taught to respect and obey their fathers first, then their husbands and finally their sons (Shinotsuka 1989). Few women worked outside of the home; they were mainly teachers, nurses, or in such professions that were considered appropriate for women. After the war, Japan added into their Constitution an equal opportunity employment law. The Constitution promulgated in 1946, states, "All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin" (Article 14). Japan is definitely moving towards a gender equality based society, however, a combination of historical and socio-cultural factors have caused change at the workplace to be extremely slow in coming (Shinotsuka 1989).
