Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
wives that men look for when deciding to marry them. Thus, to what extent
Soka Gakkai members, whether academics or more generally, make an e
ort
to live up to Ikeda
rst century the century of
women in many ways depends on the individuals changing their attitudes
towards gender.
Ikeda certainly chose an auspicious moment to denounce the tradition of
women giving up their careers when in October 2003 he turned around in the
middle of a speech at an SU ceremony and in front of 5,000 people, he
directed the following question to the male professors sitting next to him on the
stage, with only one head of department being female and sitting in the front
row:
'
s call for making the twenty-
'
Where are all the women? You will fall behind if this situation con-
tinues
, at which the SU Principal bowed apologetically. Yet, without personal
commitment and action on the part of those males in charge, changing
employment practices will be di
'
cult, no matter how much Ikeda talks about
women
s greatness or his wish to change the situation. Also, the female
members and female employees of Soka Gakkai whom I asked about this
replied that despite Ikeda constantly rebuking men for not respecting women,
most men think it does not apply to them. It seems that some young women
in Soka Gakkai may be waiting patiently for men to change, while others are
indirectly pointing out to them that Ikeda
'
s guidance indeed does apply to
them. One young woman who worked for Soka Gakkai described the older
male employees as generally having
'
'
so much pride that they need to treat
-
them like kindergarten children
but they do change, it just takes a long time
'
because their pride is in the way
.
How did young men, many of whom had grown up with absent fathers and
stay-at-home mothers, feel about potential changes being made to the patri-
archal structures around them? One young man, Hiro, whom I had got to
know well, told me very honestly of his ambivalence towards his girlfriend
continuing to work after marriage. Over tea in a café one afternoon Hiro,
who had been a graduate student of SU and had lived and studied overseas,
declared one day that he was going to split up from his girlfriend because he
could not marry her. After talking to him for a while it became clear to me,
and to Hiro himself, that the reason for his decision was essentially because of
her desire to continue working after marriage.
'
Who was going to look after
their future family and their home?
he asked desperately. What further com-
plicated the situation was that she had a demanding job in the civil service,
which meant that she might transfer overseas in the future, were she to con-
tinue working.
'
he lamented. I found myself asking,
talking from my own feminist perspective, what he would do if she were to
make the same demand of him: to choose between giving up his career and
not marrying. After a while of talking about this, he began to see that the
essential problem was that he made di
'
What would I do then?
'
erent demands of her than of himself.
I was not the only one who might have in
uenced his decision to marry her
in the end. Some months later we met again. Hiro and his girlfriend had been
for guidance with a senior leader in Soka Gakkai. He had advised them to
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