After reading these two books in one sitting, one is about poor women in Japan and the other is about ordinary women in South Korea. One is the desperate struggle of women at the bottom of society, and the other is the hopeless life that women in the middle of society seem to have choice and no other choice.
I am very fortunate that I am China's post-80s generation, I have some choices in my life, there are some runs, although it is hard, but it is not hopeless.
Poor women in Japan are mainly single mothers, or this book largely shows us this. As a developed country, Japan has always been unequal in the gender of men and women. Women are more housewives, dependent on their fathers before marriage, husbands after marriage, and sons when they are old. It's not that women want to cling, it's that the whole environment envelops them.
If a single mother has more than one child, she has no way to do full-time work (full-time work requires overtime at night, and holidays also need overtime), the cost of childcare is very high, and the child can only take leave when she is sick. Therefore, many companies do not sign full-time work contracts with single mothers. These mothers have to work odd jobs to raise their children, or even a few jobs, and are exhausted and trapped in poverty and hunger. "There is no rice in the house, so I can only cook a little noodles and carrots and eat them with my children." "Eat only one meal a day." In order to survive, they tried their best.
Poverty also prevents their children from receiving a sustained and good education, from advancing to school and finding suitable jobs. These children enter the society prematurely, and because of ignorance, they will be handed over to the men at the bottom or even cheat on them, get pregnant before marriage, get pregnant with a teenage girl, and then give birth to a child, once again becoming a poor single mother. The intergenerational transmission of poverty forms a vicious circle.
Many women, forced to choose a job in a shop, in order to survive, in order to have a place to live. shops even function as social security, providing childcare.
The painful despair of these poor women at the bottom made me trance, we are the same planet in the same era. I can't describe the shocking poverty, the despair, the inability to move.
As a developed country, Japan with fewer children, and an aging Japan, these low-level girls, women, and children seem to be abandoned by society, thrown back to themselves, let them struggle, and fend for themselves.
Relatively speaking, although our country has poverty, the state and the government have been actively helping the poor and doing their best to protect women and children.
Compulsory education is free, high school and university tuition fees are relatively low, and student loans are more conscientious. Japan's student loans have crushed many young people. They take out loans to go to college, and after graduation, some people can't find jobs, some people are too low-paid to pay off their debts, and they fall into a situation where they have no life and only pay their debts.
Jin Zhiying, born in 1982, belongs to a middle-class family, although born in a family with a serious preference for sons and daughters, there is no pressure of poverty as a whole. She is only a woman herself, suffering more social injustices.
Equal rights for men and women in South Korea and Japan is not as good as our country. However, in China, where the environment is friendly to women, there are still many "fan men" - confident men.
Watching Kim Ji-young's story is like watching our own story.
We have a leader who often criticizes and instructs me, "You women can't do it," "If you women want to do it, you have to be a woman," and "You can either go back and have another child." "When I look at you, I can't do anything." ”。
Under such a blow, I once doubted whether I really had a problem.
It was later learned that he said the same thing to other female colleagues, perhaps, it was his means, his routine, his management style.
Jin Zhiying had to resign to take the baby at home because she was pregnant and had a baby, and later suffered from postpartum depression. Although, her husband seemed to love her and help her. But he was "helping" her.
The husband believes that doing housework and bringing up children is "helping" the wife.
Isn't it their own home, their own children?
Isn't "raising" wives and children a division of labor they make? One at home to take care of the housework, one to go out and earn money for the outside world? It's just a division of labor, and no one raises anyone.
However, society is like that. Women are often too demanding, to bring a good baby, to take care of the family, but also to make money.
Men, as long as they work as a reason, can go out to work overtime, socializing, regardless of children and families, even if his salary is not enough to support the family, he can also be at ease. His mom and around him would say, "How hard he worked for this family!"
However, this woman who supports the family, works during the day and carries a baby at night, has a serious lack of sleep, but she will be criticized as "a pregnant fool for three years". Isn't that the devastation of three years of sleep deprivation?
Women are still a vulnerable group. Although we want to be strong, we are also strong. However, it needs the support and guarantee of the social environment.
In the case of the state advocating the birth of three children, protecting women's rights and interests may be the first step that must be taken.
I hope that Jin Zhiying, who was born in 92, does not need to bear this.
Maybe they're suffering from that too.
I hope that The 02/12-year-old Jin Zhiying will no longer have to bear this.