It had been diagnosed that the 21st century would be the era of women. Reflecting, in a Discover Nikkei from 2014, such an idea would still seem to be a utopia, after the hegemony of men who for millennia had ruled the world in an absolute way, implementing systems of domination and oppression of a weak nature and submission of women.
Only at the end of the millennium, after having waged a series of attempts to vindicate women in the world, a space was gradually achieved, even though it was still incipient. It is commendable to highlight the importance that the United Nations and the series of Women's Conferences gave to the defense of women's rights and defense that were organized worldwide.
Cultural and political entities were the territory of men, while women were considered nature subordinate to them. Added to this was capitalism and neoliberalism, which dominated with the now famous motto of “win, win”, creating social and economic inequality, affecting women above all. The tasks performed by women in the home were not considered work, because they were not paid and because of the idea that they were typical of feminine nature.
Recently, the importance of this work that women do is being recognized, which is truly for life, and is called the “Care Economy”, which gives value to this work and makes visible the tasks performed by women. women.
The vast majority of Nikkei women take care of household chores, taking care of the family, the home, and the elderly. However, it is necessary to highlight that in Paraguay they came together to organize themselves to care for the Japanese elderly, for which they took training courses held in Japan with the support of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). In this way, the “task of care” was and is valued as a contribution to the well-being of the elderly, through recreation, physical exercises, anniversary celebrations and allusive dates, all with the aim of providing them with a happy old age. .
On the other hand, Nikkei women who had the opportunity to enter institutions of higher education and training for professionalism have created companies and financial institutions that they manage with great solvency and capacity. In the country's capital, you can see Japanese restaurants that have a lot of demand and prestige, catering services, gigantic supermarkets, beauty salons, legal and insurance firms, import-export trading companies and financial companies, all of them. managed by women. Regarding the academic field, Nikkei women have also gained places of relevance, receiving special distinctions for their enormous contribution to science, research and education.
Little by little, women are gaining spaces in all areas, which were previously exclusive to men, and this is giving rise to women's empowerment. With these and other achievements, over time we will be able to affirm that the Age of Women has truly arrived.
© 2014 Emi Kasamatsu
