Kimono in the Boardroom: The Invisible Evolution of Japanese Women Managers - Book Review

Administrative Science Quarterly,  Sept, 2002  by Paula Caligiuri

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Jean R. Renshaw. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 291 pp. $3500.

Kimono in the Boardroom is based on Renshaw's interviews with over 150 successful women in Japan. The primary goal of the book is to illustrate that women are not only present in Japanese organizations but that they are also subtly redefining the landscape of Japanese business. To achieve this goal, Renshaw draws on sociology, employment law, economics, anthropology, religion, psychology, and history to sketch a picture of the contemporary Japanese businesswoman-her experiences, her challenges, and her needs for the future. The picture Renshaw sketches is given both depth and color through the quotes and life experiences of the professional women she interviewed.

The book has twelve chapters, organized into three sections with loosely connected themes. While not a stated goal of the book, Kimono in the Boardroom provides an excellent compilation of comparisons between American and Japanese culture, gender-equality challenges, affirmative action laws, etc., throughout the book, which makes this a contribution to comparative diversity research. The first chapter offers a statistical description of Japanese women in business compared with American women in business. The second chapter describes the demographic characteristics of the Japanese women interviewed and some of their professional experiences. Based on observation of the patterns reported, Renshaw draws some interesting (if not theoretically based) observations. On page 52, for example, she concludes that, the importance of birth order "became apparent ... [when it consistently appeared that] the majority of the successful women managers grew up without older brothers." Departing from the first two chapters in t his section, the third chapter offers a very brief summary of Japan's history, mythology, and religion. Renshaw uses these summaries as a foundation for the creation of today's perceptions of and policies toward Japanese professional women.

The second section of this book includes chapters 4 through 7. These chapters detail the culture of Japanese organizations, the various paths to success her interviewees have taken, and the challenges preventing Japanese women from achieving success. Given that these chapters include many quotes from the women Renshaw interviewed, it is important to clarify who they are. While the subtitle of this book suggests that the women interviewed were traditional corporate managers in Japanese organizations, they are actually very diverse women with successful careers, broadly defined. They hold a wide variety of titles and seem to run the gamut in terms of positions, from lower-level corporate women to entrepreneurs and individual contributors, and they range in age from 20 to over 50. Given that Renshaw has interviewed an excellent representation of successful professional Japanese women, this book may have greater generalizability than the title suggests.

The third and last section of Kimono in the Boardroom, including chapters 8 through 12, describes the current state and predicts the future state of women in Japanese business. In chapters 8 and 9, Renshaw offers very useful categorizations for researchers to help understand the subtle differences among Japanese businesses. Chapter 8 categorizes the various types of female-owned businesses, based on the way the women rose to power, and chapter 9 categorizes the organizational cultures of Japanese businesses, based loosely on their receptivity to female managers. Chapter 10, among other topics, covers the state of Japanese affirmative action laws, using the United States as the point of comparison.

Turning to the future, chapters 11 and 12 examine the role of men in the Japanese family and the changes needed in traditional Japanese business to become more receptive to female managers. Both chapters have the overarching goal to smooth the path for Japanese women with professional career aspirations. In chapter 11, Renshaw describes the Japanese male psyche and uses many examples from popular culture to show that there is an evolution toward greater gender equality among the younger generation. While compelling, and hopeful for Japanese women, the sources indicating this cultural shift range from Japanese television commercials to commentaries written by Japanese psychiatrists. In parallel, chapter 12 offers the same hope for a cultural shift toward gender equality within Japanese organizations. If real, a sociological exploration of this cultural shift will likely be the subject of many future books.

Renshaw seems to have written Kimono in the Boardroom to illustrate the compelling story of female Japanese managers today. In many ways, the book unfolds as a composite biographical sketch, toggling between ancient Japan and modern organizational challenges. While interesting to read, the style contributes to the shortcoming of the book. The interview-based research does not have a sound theoretical base. Rather, the interviewees' experiences serve to illustrate Renshaw's personal interpretation of the state of professional Japanese women. This shortcoming will resonate more with academic readers than with practitioners. While lacking in rigor, both academics and practitioners alike should nevertheless find the book interesting and very revealing. Renshaw does achieve her goal in making successful professional Japanese women highly visible to the business community.

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