Intorduction : Theorizing the gendering of the knowledge economy : comparative approaches / Sylvia Walby -- Gender and the conceptualization of the knowledge economy in comparison / Karen Shire -- Comparative livelihood security systems from a gender perspective, with a focus on Japan / Mari...

Using new evidence from servant contracts, 1600-1890, we estimate women’s wages in Japan. Women’s wages could only sustain 1.5-2 people up to 1900, the lowest recorded in the pre-industrial world. We then show the gender wage ratio was 0.7, higher than in Western Europe. Despite this, Japan...