Women

__ Women __ Douglas MacArthur, certified SCAP in Japan, ensured that there was a reform in relation to the way women were treated compared to before the war. He proposed these changes in both the seven-point plan and two articles from the newly updated constitution. The seven-point plan was created as he believed it was necessary to remould Japan to leave its previous militarist phase. Point two of his Seven Point Plan states: //To give women suffrage.//

When Douglas MacArthur created Articles 13 and 19 from the new constitution that was used from May 1947, he began to put this point into action. The articles were created to remove any discrimination in political, economic and social relations due to race, creed, //sex,// social status or family origin. MacArthur himself stated, “The place of women in Japan must be bought to a level consistent with that of women in the western democracies”.

On 10th April 1946, an election was held where 39 women were elected for parliament and 14 million women voted for the first time.

Women could now also be apart of any occupation and divorce became liberalised.