the tea-serving thing

The archetypal image of gender oppression in the modern Japanese workplace looks something like this:

Several representatives of a partner company have arrived at headquarters for a meeting. In the conference room, guests and hosts are exchanging business cards and settling their middle-aged male rear ends into spacious chairs.

As small talk quiets and the meeting begins, the door of the conference room edges open. In come two women bearing trays of teacups. Tiptoeing around the table with tiny demure steps, they deferentially offer a teacup to each man, saying “douzo” and “shitsureishimasu” (“here you are,” “please pardon me”) in low, breathy voices. The women then retreat from the room as the men launch into their meeting.

This is everyday duty for female employees in traditional Japanese companies, which constitute probably one of the most thoroughly and crushingly gender-oppressive structures to keep a stubborn head held high in a developed society. Men are hired with the understanding of opportunities for management-track promotion; the majority of women are hired to serve tea, file documents, serve tea, make copies for the men, serve tea, answer the phones, serve tea, and wash up the dishes from serving tea. The OLs, or “office ladies” as these women are called, are also frequently required to wear dowdy uniforms, while the men can dress as they please.

Not every Japanese workplace is this bad, and not every structure in Japanese society oppresses women as badly as the traditional office environment does. But Japan in the 21st century remains a place where reality for thousands of women looks like the scene described above.

I thought I’d explain the tea-serving thing early on, because I’ll probably be referring to it over and over again in future posts.

Further reading on Japanese women in the workplace:

1) “Japanese Working Women Still Serve the Tea,” a March ’07 article in the Washington Post

2) “The Office Lady in Japan,” an essay by Jean Forrest

And a highly recommended movie! Fear and Trembling, a true story about one Belgian woman’s strange experiences as a first-year employee in a large Japanese company. In French and Japanese, with English subtitles.