Women in Progress and the Power of Patriarchy: A Transnational Comparison of, Japan, Mexico, and Britain

The late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries witnessed the modernization of patriarchal norms that often intersected with emerging feminist identities and ideas of equality. Looking specifically at the connections between Japan, Mexico, and Britain, this project examines how these countries negotiated their modernity and their patriarchal principles through changing middle class women’s roles in society. Particularly emphasized are the ways in which feminist women positioned themselves in relation to growing modern paternalistic national policies. Many of the women chosen here exhibited fluctuating feminist identities that reveal different philosophical ideas on women’s liberation. Moreover, this flexibility was often represented in historically significant female archetypes such as the New Woman, and the Modern Girl. Making this argument, I show that during modernization middle class women in Japan, Mexico, and Britain endeavored to map out their own versions of what equality looked like. For some, this included equal education for men and women. For others, it meant the complete reformation of gendered politics. The influence of this forced the patriarchal state to transform as well; those who exercised patriarchal power had to simultaneously progress and attempt to maintain gender hierarchy. Ultimately, this thesis uncovers similarities between patriarchal nations that cloak their modernity in progressive rhetoric.