일본 근대 여공의 생리휴가와 월경담론의 유용(流用)－배제와 편입의 이질서사－

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of menstrual leave for female factory workers in Japan between the 1910s and 1954, focusing on the interplay of literature, labor unions, administrative policies, and medical discourse. By analyzing sources such as Jokō Aishi (1925), union documents (1927–1928), government surveys, and wartime medical texts, the research highlights how menstrual leave was framed through medicalization, maternalist ideology, institutional codification, and eventual appropriation by women themselves. The findings show that humanitarian narratives of sacrifice were translated into union demands, while administrative and medical texts reinforced the rhetoric of “protection” tied to national efficiency. Yet, women workers also appropriated this discourse, using it strategically to justify absences and negotiate working conditions. This dual process positioned female workers both as objects of regulation and as agents who redefined official language for their own purposes. Rather than a linear trajectory from medicalization to legalization, menstrual leave discourse reveals a cyclical structure of emotional mobilization, institutionalization, and appropriation. The study concludes that menstrual leave functioned not only as a labor-rights issue but also as a symbolic medium of collective emotions, shaping the boundary subjectivity of female workers in modern Japan.