Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Sociology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dingwall, R.
Right arrow Articles by Minamikata, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Images of Parenthood in the United Kingdom and Japan

Robert Dingwall

Hiroko Tanaka

Satoshi Minamikata

Depictions of pregnancy and parenthood in parentcraft literature in the United Kingdom and Japan are examined as evidence of the beliefs and values of the two societies. Following a review of the texts produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with their common authoritarian tone and emphasis on women's responsibilities towards the nation, there is a brief discussion of the concepts used to guide the analysis of contemporary visual material. The `official' versions of parenthood produced by government agencies are set alongside `commercial' and `alternative' models produced by mass-market publishers and radical groups. The UK manuals are seen to present parenthood as the joint responsibility of choice-making adults, while the Japanese marginalize women and emphasize their subordination to medical authority. The Westernized tone of the commercial publications is essentially superficial and a reflection of a prevailing consumer style which overlays a traditional culture. Contemporary UK texts show a drift towards utilitarian populism, which may be a significant marker of cultural change.

Child-training literature is as much expressive of the moral climate of the time and place in which it is written as the state of scientific knowledge about children (Mead and Wolfenstein 1955:44).

Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3, 423-446 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038591025003005
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?