Liberal State, culture and feminism in the first decades of the 20th century in Japan

Hiratsuka Raichō’s leadership

Abstract

This paper analyzed the Japanese feminist movement in the framework of the Nation-State arising after the Meiji Restoration, which implemented liberal reforms and projects to modernize the country during the transition from 19th to 20th century, according to western standards. It addresses a doubly subordinated subject, “eastern” and “feminist”, through the reflections about women’s history, cultural history and Edward Said’s Othering theory, reflected on their collective, organizational and subjective aspects, from the leadership of Hiratsuka Raichō and other feminists, presenting their cultural initiatives and the controversies on maternal thinking and the role of the State in issues such as childbearing and childcare.