[Monika]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

A lot of the "women treated unfairly" stuff is really a myth based on misinterpretation. I`ve covered it a lot in other topics, but basically from a "western" viewpoint, it seems that no one can believe a woman would ever possibly CHOOSE to leave her job and stay at home once she is married/has children. In their eyes, it looks to be "oppression"... Even though the women choose to do so of their own free will. So this big "women are inferior in Japan!" talk spreads. Most women choose to stay home with the kids. Some don`t.

This doesn't really make much sense as in many western countries many women also choose to stay home or may be considered to be "bad mothers" by some (more traditional people) if they don't stay at home.

Most European countries have rules that allow the mother (or even either parent) to stay home 3 years after the birth of a child and then return to the job. They usually get money from the state for 1 to 3 years varying by country.

E.g. Germany: 3 years to stay home and return to the job. Until recently two years money of a fixed amount (so especially low-earning women would stay home for two years, good-earning women would return to their jobs very early, women with good-earning husbands would stay home 3 years). Since this year 3 years to stay home and return to the job, 1 year money relative to the last income (with a fixed minimum) - the hope of the government is that good-earning women will get children, too. The parties to the left want to invest more money into daycare, especially the situation for children under 3 is difficult. The parties more to the right however still think that women should stay at home and give tax breaks mostly to families with one person earning lots of money and the other spouse earning nothing. Especially Christian institutions still seem to spread that daycare would be harmful to children and mothers should care for them. However many daycares (mostly age 3 to 6, but also for 2-3) are run by the churches.

E.g. US: As there is no 3-year or even 1-year stay-at-home period with the guarantee to get one's job back, most women return to work after about 3 months after birth, unless the husband is really earning lots and the wife probably intends to give up her job forever. However, you will often hear that day care is supposedly harmful for kids and good mothers (if they can afford it) should stay at home. There is a movie about a real case: The parents divorced, the son lived with the mother. She started to work, put him into daycare. Because he was in daycare, the father got custody! He was working full-time, too. But he had a new wife who wasn't working. So you see what the general attitude towards daycare is. Stay-at-home moms are considered the ideal.

In France and Belgium however most mothers do return to work very early. In France daycare is free for children 3 and over and partially even 2 and over. Don't know about Belgium, could be the same.

Most women are content to take a lower salary because of the lack of strings attached to it - if the company is paying you a lot there is a lot more pressure to continue working... They`ve invested a lot in you. But if it`s lower to begin with (I`m talking like 85% of the average male salary, not like incredibly low), there is very little pressure to keep working once you decide to quit for family reasons. Employers expect it, so everyone parts on good terms. There are companies out there that pay women full salaries - sometimes in the same company there will be two standards - and those are the type of women who generally continue to work. The only reason the lower salary is more common is because the women themselves PREFER it as it takes the pressure off of them in the future.

Well, that's a thing that is really different about Japan and other industrialized countries. Not that there is a difference in salary: In the other countries, also in Germany, women still earn less than man. 85% would probably be a reasonable estimate here, too. BUT they aren't content with it! They want to earn 100%. They just don't. Earning 100% wouldn't put more pressure on them. They would still leave their jobs for a while after getting a child. So the employer paid them 100% - so what?! Doesn't give him any more rights or make her not get children.