Events

Doctoral Research Webinar: Weaving a Modern Workforce: How Female Industrial Pioneers Refined Women’s Economic Role in Japan

Early industrialization created a tension between new economic opportunities and traditional social norms that confined women to the domestic sphere. Xinxian Li, Research PhD Candidate of HKU Business School, examines how female industrial pioneers helped mediate this tension by prompting more women to participate in factory employment during the early industrialization in late 19th to early 20th century Japan. The female industrial pioneers emerged in the first modern model factory, Tomioka Silk Mill, thanks to the French technology transmission in 1872. Xinxian finds that these pioneers catalyzed their home regions’ female labor force participation by 1920. And this effect is not confined to silk industry but spilled over to other public sectors. As a placebo, the pioneers did not affect female workforce in the traditional agriculture. During this Quantitative History Doctoral Research Webinar, he will further elaborate that the pioneering effect arises from two mechanisms: one is that the pioneers diffused new technical skills that nurtured more factory jobs for women, and the other is they acted as role models that encouraged more females to work outside the home. These role models cast a long-lasting impact that extends to contemporary times. Their home municipalities still witnessed higher female labor force participation and more favorable social attitudes toward women than the other areas by 2000.

Date: October 9, 2025

Time: 16:00 – 17:30
16:00 (Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore)
04:00 (New York)|01:00 (Los Angeles)|09:00 (London)|17:00 (Tokyo)|18:00 (Sydney)

Venue: Zoom Webinar

Language: English

The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fifth year, is co-organized by the Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and the International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]).

量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。

Conveners:
Zhiwu Chen
Chicheng Ma