1. “The past is never dead, it’s not even past
“The past is never dead, it’s not even past.” --William Faulkner, “Requiem for a Nun” A Moderately High-Level Status Trap: Wives, Husbands and Husbands’ Younger Brothers

2. The Trap A former path to higher status has become a glass ceiling
From the wife of the heir and successor
Through ryousai kenbo, ‘good wife, wise mother’
To sengyou shufu, ‘professional housewife’

3. The Paradigmatic Structure of Japanese Gender Relations
Male : Female :: Public : Private
Male : Female :: Public : Private :: Breadwinner : Housewife

4. What Makes a Family an Ie?
corporate (owns property)
bilateral (children are related by blood to all four grandparents)
stem family (one couple per generation)
contingently extended (common for three or more generations to live together)
patrilocal (successor’s wife often goes to husband’s parents’ home after marriage)

5. perpetuity (forever), for the prosperity and continuity of which its current members are assigned, and take, responsibility in each generation. inheritance of the ie estate is unitary, passing to one successor and heir household head retires in his prime following his successor’s marriage, securing transmission to his heir and successor free of claims by second sons. “All of the successor’s siblings eventually leave the household and ultimately lose their membership in its stem family”