Global Pressure, Local Results: The Impact of CEDAW on Working Women in Japan

Chika Shinohara

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DOI: 10.2190/WR.13.4.f

Abstract

Global movements have institutionalized and promoted equal employment opportunity rights in the international community, shaping laws and work conditions on a national level. This article illustrates the history of equal employment opportunity law reform, tracing local-international linkages. How have global movements for equal employment opportunities influenced legal reform processes and employment conditions in a society with a traditional gender-role culture and a rigid employment structure? Analyses of the legal reforms in Japan and of country reports for and responses from the United Nations' Committee for the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) show how women's employment rights have expanded on a national level. The developments in women's employment rights in Japan, in areas such as family leave, sexual harassment, and indirect discrimination prohibitions, consistently follow Japan's interactions with CEDAW.

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