The “Myth of the First Three Years” and the Ideology of Motherhood in Japan
Date
2023-05-01
Authors
Maruyama, Kaori
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Abstract
The “Myth of the First Three Years” (sansaiji shinwa, 三歳児神話) refers to a common belief among Japanese that mothers should stay with their children until they turn three years old to ensure children’s proper development. The widespread myth of mother-child bonding has played a crucial part in normalizing mothers’ child-rearing roles and creating social prejudice against working mothers in postwar Japan. This thesis deconstructs the “Myth of the First Three Years” by exploring its origin and structural and ideological dimensions. The history of the construction of motherhood in modern Japan reveals that the myth was not originated from centuries-old traditions, but derived from intersecting gendered practices in the postwar years, as evidenced by the dominant cultural discourse of full-time housewives (sengyō shufu, 専業主婦) and the popularity of child-rearing theories in the 1960s. The myth contributed to the popularization of the gendered idea that women were “naturally” mothers and primary caregivers for their children, as encapsulated in the notion of motherhood. Using feminist critiques of gender norms and Roland Barthes’ (1972) theory of myth-making, this thesis dissects the historical and cultural construction of motherhood as a women’s innate ability and discusses how the “Myth of the First Three Years” popularized the ideology of motherhood by normalizing the gender division of child-rearing labour in postwar Japan. My research also includes interviews with four working mothers in Japan. The experiences of each mother reveal the lingering impact of the myth on the gender division of labour in the workplace and at home from the 1980s to present-day Japan. This thesis concludes that the “Myth of the First Three Years” has served to naturalize women’s roles as primary caregivers for their children while sustaining the gender division of labour.