Changes in married women's commuting activity in terms of life-stage in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture

Abstract

Women's commuting distance is, in general, shorter than men's, because housekeeping and work restrict married women's commuting. Time-geographical studies suggest that the existence of small children at home influences married women's working. There are, however, other elements that influence married women's commuting activity in addition to time constraints. It should be determined how married women select their workplace in a constrained activity space. It is significant to discuss married women's commuting activity in metropolitan suburbs, because the increase in the number of working women has influenced the suburbanization of employment in metropolitan areas. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in married women's commuting activity by the life-stage of each household. In particular, this paper focuses on the age of the youngest child and women's occupations. The study area is Matsuba-cho, Kashiwa, Chiba prefecture, located in the northeastern suburbs of Tokyo. Data used in this analysis were collected in 1994 by interviews and questionnaire surveys. Married women were asked such questions as their work experience after moving to Matsuba-cho, their family structure, and so on. Among the entire sample of 202 married women, 80 were commuters. The commuting rate of married women was only 40%. In suburban residential areas, married women's workplaces show a belt-shaped distribution extending from their residential area toward Tokyo. The commuting time of wives tends to be shorter than that of husbands. The transportation modes of wives are diverse although husbands commute mainly by train. In case of the married women who had a job when they moved to Matsuba-cho, their commuting activity space was dispersed. There was little relationship between their commuting distance and the growth of their children. On the other hand, in case of the married women who started working after moving, their commuting activity space expanded toward Tokyo as their children grew older. There was a strong relationship between their commuting distance and life-stage as classified by the age of the youngest child. This suggests that child care heavily influences the extent of commuting activity spaces of married women. Occupation also influences the commuting activity space of married women. White-collar workers' commuting activity space was widely dispersed, while that of blue-collar workers' was narrowly concentrated. In case of married women who started working after moving, white-collar workers' commuting activity space expanded toward Tokyo after the youngest child reached 10 years of age and older. On the other hand, blue-collar workers' commuting activity space was narrow irrespective of the age of the youngest child. On the basis of the changing patterns of their commuting activities, working women can be categorized into three groups: home-oriented workers, workplace-oriented workers, and mediating workers. Home-oriented workers are constrained by various family conditions. The commuting rate is low when their children are infants because of the concentration of child care. Their commuting rate becomes higher as their children become older, although their commuting activity spaces do not enlarge. Some of them even reduce their commuting distance. Most of them are blue-collar workers who did not graduate from university or college but are high school graduates. Short commuting times are important for them, and their workplaces are in their daily life-space. Commuting activities of workplace-oriented workers are not strongly related to family condition such as giving birth, moving, and so on. There is no distinct difference between the extent of their commuting activity space and their life-stage. Their commuting activity space is usually as wide as men's. Most of them are office or professional workers who graduated from college or university. Their commuting activity space is definitely separated from their daily life-space, irrespective of life-stage. The commuting activity of mediating workers are spatially limited when their youngest child is under ten years of age. They work in their daily life-space. However, their commuting activity becomes spatially wider as their children grow older. They can commute long distances, because of release from child care responsibilities. Most of them are white-collar workers who graduated from junior college. Some of them could not take jobs as blue-collar workers when their children were young, but they try to find more desirable white-collar jobs with longer commuting distance. Following the change in life-stage, they shift from the home-oriented to the workplace-oriented category, and this brings about the separation of commuting activity space from the daily life-space.