Why Are There No Spinsters in Japan

Bibliographic Data

ID6079916
AuthorsLaurel L Cornell (Departments of Sociology and Asian Studies, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14853), corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume9
Issue4
Pages326-339
Publication date1984-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Family History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0363-1990 • E-ISSN: 1552-5473
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/036319908400900402
OpenAlexW2102598564
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited22

The Western European folk model of spinsterhood portrays the spinster as a woman who eschews marriage because of economic difficulties or who deliberately chooses a career other than marriage. How does this model fare in other societies? Using population registers covering a single village in Japan in the preindustrial period (1671-1871), this paper finds that spinsters are rare. There are few economic bars to marriage, but, more importantly, there are no careers for unmarried women. They do not serve as domestic servants or as sur rogates in other roles in the household; they do not occupy specialist helping roles, and they do not become religieuses. On the contrary, even women whose prospects are slim are deliberately placed in households as married women. Hence, spinsterhood in Western Europe is an anomaly. Its existence must be ex plained, not assumed

Demographic economics · Economics · Marriage market · Political science · Population · Sociology · Western europe · Demography · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Marriage and Sexual Relationships