Japan Women's University Institutional Repositry / 日本女子大学学術情報リポジトリ

江川,  紀美子

小池,  孝子

定行,  まり子

A Study of the Development of Nursery Facilities through Conversion and Re-composition: Situation of Nursery Facilities Development in Urban Area

杉崎, 美生

Improvisation: From the Use of 'Nanka' in Self-disclosure

廣繁, 理美

高増, 雅子

Systematic Review of Research into Poverty Among Children and Food Support in Developed Countries and Japan

平間 , ちひろ

石川, 孝重

Trial Calculation for Design Based on Methods for the Sensation Evaluation of Random Horizontal Vibrations

多屋, 淑子

井田, 真理奈

Development of a Technique to Assess the Visibility of Lace Curtains using Virtual Reality Technology. Part 2: Usefulness of a VR Technique for Assessing the Visibility of Lace Curtains

荒牧, 草平

Social Interaction and Educational Attitude of Mothers: Focusing on the Personal Networks within and outside the Family

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編集後記
今年度も無事に『英米文学研究』を発行する運びとなりました。厳正な査読を経
て、掲載されることになった 5本の研究論文は、いずれも近年の研究動向を踏まえ
た力作で、本論文集は今後の英米文学研究の発展に資するものと思われます。多く
の方々にご高覧いただければ幸いです。なお、本号の発行に際して、査読や編集作
業にご協力いただいた先生方に、心より御礼申し上げます。 （馬場　聡）　
本誌の執筆者（掲載順）
熊　倉　麻　名 （本学非常勤講師）
ピーター・ロビンソン （本学准教授）
森　井　美　保 （本学非常勤講師）
小 笠 原 亜 衣 （関西学院大学准教授）
土　屋　智　子 （本学講師）


編集後記

日本女子大学博士（文学）2018年度thesi

鴨川, 都美

Japanese

村山知義論 演劇運動における基礎的研究

日本女子大学博士（学術）2018年度thesi

荘加, 直子

「慶長小袖」の成立に関する史的研究

Schulte, Brigid

Profi le
 Brigid Schulte is a journalist and an author of the New York Times bestselling book, 
“Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play when No One has the Time”, and had been a staff writer of 
the Washington Post for almost twenty years, where she won a number of reporting and writing 
awards and was a member of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She now serves as the 
director of the Better Life Lab, the work-life, gender equality and social policy program at New 
America, a nonpartisan think tank. She’s focusing on the death from overwork phenomenon, its 
causes, consequences, and prospects for changes in Japan and America as a 2017 Abe Journalism 
Fellow.
 In the United States we have a long-work hours culture, just like in Japan. We also we have death 
from overwork culture, although we don’t recognize it. A recent study found that work-life confl ict, 
long work hours, lack of health insurance, toxic bosses and other issues associated with work, 
causes so much stress and illness that the workplace is now the 5th leading cause of death in 
America. Even so, work-life balance is still not seen as important. It’s seen as an individual’s 
responsibility. So there are relatively no national public policies to help people combine work and 
life responsibilities. Unlike like in other advanced economics, including Japan, there is no national 
paid family and medical leave in the United States. We have unpaid leave that covers only 60 
percent of the workforce. Some companies may voluntarily choose to offer paid maternity leave, 
but not much paternity leave. In both the United States and Japan, it’s clear from the studies on 
stress, health, gender equality and karoshi, that policies, practices, and workplace cultures and 
social attitudes are not working in order for people to have a Good Life, and therefore must change. 
 What do we mean by The Good Life? The Harvard psychologist, Erik Erikson said that the richest 
and fullest lives make time for the three great arenas of life: Work, Love, and Play. 
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　寄稿（研究会報告）
Better Work, Better Life
May 22, 2018
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Brigid Schulte
39
 Why do we need the time for play? In the United States, we have a culture that sees leisure is an 
unproductive waste of time. But when we are idle or spend time away from concentrated work, our 
brains are actually most active. In neuroscience, the Default Mode Network lights up when our 
brains are idle, connecting different parts of the brain that don’t typically communicate, or work 
together when we are operating in a brain focused mode. We are discovering that the “Aha” 
moment of insight, creativity and fresh ideas comes in a moment of rest, in what neuroscientists 
call a diffuse thinking, or daydreamy mode. It’s becoming clear that the most effective way to work 
is to oscillate between our two modes of thinking: concentrated work and diffuse time off and away 
from work. We definitely need the time for leisure.
 How can we find the time for leisure, while we have time pressure in modern life trying to juggle 
concentrated work, life and family caregiving responsibilities? The first thing to realize is that 
leisure is in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on how the time and the way you spend it make 
you feel. The Greek philosophers said that leisure was the space where we refreshed our soul and 
became most fully human. That requires time – whether for reflection, to connect with others or to 
do a favorite activity. When I kept a time diary, a time management expert found what he called 
leisure in my schedule, and I called bits and scraps of garbage time confetti – five minutes here, 10 
minutes there of mostly time stolen in between other responsibilities- which is certainly did not feel 
very leisurely. What leisure research has found is that for leisure time to be truly refreshing, one 
needs to freely choose the activity and have control over the time.
 In America, our stress levels from the long-work hours culture and time pressure have become so 
high that the World Health Organization predicts that one-third of us will be so anxious as to be 
diagnosed with anxiety-related mental condition in our lifetimes. We are very rich and very anxious 
countries, and one of the reasons why is because we are so focused on money. Money does not 
make us happy. Research confirms what we’ve known through common sense all along: connection 
and time with other people is the source of human happiness. A little stress is actually good for us, 
and can keep us on our toes. But too much constant stress makes us sick. When we are chronically 
stressed out, stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol constantly flood the body, which lead to 
high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer. New neuroscience research shows 
that going through stressful events, coupled with the perception of being stressed out can actually 
shrink our brains. One study at the Yale Stress Center found that the prefrontal cortex, the most 
recently evolved portion of our brain, where we think, learn, remember and make decisions, was 
full 20 percent smaller in volume in people who had been through stressful events and also felt 
really stressed out compared to those who were not so stressed. We should recognize that too many 
people are feeling too much stress from overwhelming work, outdated gender expectations and a 
lack of leisure. And that’s not good for our health, our families, our communities, our businesses 
nor our societies.
 Unfortunately, too many people think long work hours equal good work. And that’s not  true. A 
survey asking CEOs around the globe shows that more than three quarters of the CEOs think 
someone with no caregiving responsibility is an ideal worker – a point of view that has barred 
women and caregivers from leadership positions, regardless of their performance and talent. The 
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Better Work, Better Life
overtime work hours have been actually increasing since the 1980s. Working all the time leads to 
burn out, which is costly for businesses, not more productivity. In fact, international surveys of 
hourly productivity show the United States has one of the longest work weeks among many 
advanced countries. But Norway, where they work 37.5 hours a week by law, is the most productive 
country. France and Denmark, having six weeks of paid vacation every year and having very 
common childcare leave and paid family leave, have nearly the same productivity per hour as the 
United States. Japan and South Korea, where work hours are among the longest of all advanced 
economies, have among the lowest productivity rates.
 Since the late 1980s, many working mothers in the United States have been criticized in the media 
and have been dealing with so much guilt because of fears that they’re not spending enough time 
with their children. In fact, time diary studies show that working mothers in America today are 
spending more time with their children than stay-at-home mothers spent in the 1960s and 70. 
They’ve prioritized time with their children by giving up time for sleep, personal care, adult 
friendships, time with spouses, and spending virtually all their leisure time with their children. But 
that’s not good for anyone. Women and mothers need time for rest and recovery, and children need 
time on their own to develop their own sense of identity and independence. It’s time to let the guilt, 
intensive mothering and criticism go. It’s also time to recognize that women aren’t the only ones 
who can give care. For instance, new research shows that having a child, men also undergo 
biological changes: their bodies produce prolactin, the same hormone that produces breast milk, 
their testosterone levels drop, and their brains exhibit the same pathways of nurture and 
communication that women’s do. Men and women are natural caregivers, and it’s time that our 
workplaces, policies and attitudes reflected that to open up opportunity for women in the workplace 
and men to become more active caregivers at home, particularly now that both the United States 
and Japan have increasingly aging populations who will need more care.
 Regarding the pay gap, if men and women hold the same jobs with the same profession, the same 
education, the same levels of experience, childless men and childless women are pretty much at 
parity. However, comparing mothers and fathers, there is the pay gap. When we become parents, 
only fathers get a bonus. This is because of the unconscious bias that fathers are going to be more 
dedicated and work harder as “breadwinners” to provide for their families, and the expectation that 
mothers will be torn between home and work and will be distracted and frazzled. Research shows 
that’s not at all true. That working mothers are often among the most efficient workers, because 
they have to be.
 Now, even though more women have been graduating from college and getting advanced degrees 
than men since the mid-1980s in the United States, women who are educated and participate in the 
labor market still spend twice as much time, on average, doing the housekeeping and parenting, and 
men spend more time working for pay. (Caregiving is hard work, too, it’s just unpaid, and not 
recognized as as valuable as paid work.) That contributes not only the pay gap, but also the lack of 
women in leadership positions. It’s not that women haven’t had the talent. They haven’t had either 
the time nor have workplace policies, attitudes and practices given them the chance. We must find a 
way to create time for meaningful work, love, and play for everyone, and not police men and 
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『現代女性とキャリア』第10号（2018. 9）
women into narrowly defined gender roles. Work-life balance, rather than being a side issue or 
unimportant, is actually central. Making it a priority will result in more effective, innovative work, 
better businesses, healthier happier, more engaged and productive workers, more opportunities for 
both men and women to share care responsibilities at home and grow at work, closer-knit, stable 
families and communities, and ultimately, a more human, fairer, sustainable future for all: The 
Good Life. 
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Better Work, Better Life


English

Contribution (Workshop reports); Better work, better life

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