The Grass-roots Conservative against Gender Equality : The Case Study of Antifeminist Movement

クサ　ノ　ネ　ホシュ　ノ　ダンジョ　キョウドウ　サンカク　ハンタイ　ウンドウ　エヒメケン　ニオケル　ジェンダー　フリー　ヲ　メグル　コウボウ

スズキ, アヤカ

Suzuki, Ayaka

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

草の根

男女共同参画

女性

家族

Conservative movement

Grass-roots

Anti-feminism movements

Gender equality

Family

Conservative movements are intensifying advertisement in erce con ict with progressive social movements in the contemporary Japanese society. In particular, Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform has taken action in terms of revisionism since late 1990s. Conservative groups have held protest movements against gender equality since early 2000, which resulted in drastic impact on the government. These conservative movements have received attention as new grass-roots conservative movements. Oguma and Ueno (2003) suggested that the contemporary conservative movements are similar to civil movements by analyzing Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. However, eld research studies of these grass-roots conservative movements, especially the protest movements against gender equality have not followed after Oguma and Ueno. It is still an open question how the grass-roots conservative movements against gender equality gain support from people in grass-roots. In this paper, I aimed to develop discussion of the grass-roots conservative movements and to show what makes people get involved in the movements against gender equality. From the aspect of gender, I analyzed a case of a civil group against gender equality in a local city in Japan. Through the analysis and discussion, I showed that the conservative civil group mobilizes human resources from various conservative and religious groups to extend their social and political in uence and to campaign for increasing public awareness. Moreover, I found that the conservative group appeals the primitive consciousness of female participants by focusing on the topic of “family.”