Over the past three decades, the Japanese government has enacted a series of measures to boost the country’s anemic birth rate. Nevertheless, the birth rate has hovered around 1.4 children per woman, far below what is required for the population to reproduce itself. Why haven’t the policies worked? Hear Professor Brinton argue that policies focused on trying to make women’s work lives more like men’s have fundamentally missed the mark. Not only have such policies failed to raise the birth rate, they have also arguably exacerbated gender inequality. Professor Brinton suggests that future government and workplace policies move in a different direction.

Mary Brinton is the Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology and Director, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Professor Brinton’s research and teaching focus on gender inequality, labor markets and employment, social demography, and contemporary Japanese society.

Visit the Center for East Asian Studies website for more information on the Annual Tetsuo Najita Distinguished Lecture in Japanese Studies.

Register for the event here.

This event is co-sponsored by International House at the University of Chicago and the Center for East Asian Studies.