出版社：Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training
摘要：Studies of historical origins of the male breadwinner household model cut across the boundaries of economic history, labour history, women's history, and welfare state studies. The model is said to have been established between the mid-19th and the mid-20th century in many countries. This essay begins with a brief survey of literature on the historical path to breadwinning, with special reference to Britain, Sweden and Japan. The literature survey is fol- lowed by the examination of a hypothesis put forward by the economic histo- rian Jan de Vries, which focuses on household production by married women, first in west European historical contexts, and then with Japanese pre-war data. It is argued that one of the factors accounting for the rise of the breadwinner regime was an increase in the demand for home-produced goods and services, a factor specific to a particular phase of development where the market sup- plied no acceptable substitutes for most of these. At the same time, it is em- phasized that culture-specific factors, such as family formation rules, tradi- tional systems of welfare, and the government's stance and policies, are also important for a better understanding of the rise of breadwinning in each his- torical case.
