Editing Issei (section)

====''Issei'' women====
''Issei'' women's lives were somewhat similar, despite differences in context, because they were structured within interlocking webs of patriarchal relationships, and that consistent subordination was experienced both as oppressive and as a source of happiness.<ref>Kobayashi, Audrey Lynn. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NzwjB4j0iZQC&dq=issei+japanese+canadians&pg=PA70  ''Women, Work and Place,'' p. xxxiii.]</ref> The ''Issei'' women lived lives of transition which were affected by three common factors: the dominant ideology of late ''Meiji'' Japan, which advanced the economic objectives of the Japanese state; the patriarchal traditions of the agricultural village, which arose partly as a form of adjustment to national objectives and the adjustment to changes imposed by modernization; and the constraints which arose within a Canadian or American society dominated by racist ideology.<ref>Kobayashi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NzwjB4j0iZQC&dq=issei+japanese+canadians&pg=PA70  p. 45.]</ref> Substantive evidence of the working lives of ''Issei'' women is very difficult to find, partly for lack of data and partly because the data that do exist are influenced by their implicit ideological definition of women.<ref>Kobayashi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NzwjB4j0iZQC&dq=issei+japanese+canadians&pg=PA70  p. 58.]</ref> In Hawai‘i, ''Issei'' women worked as washerwomen, midwives, and barbers, providing essential services to the growing immigrant population.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nakamura |first=Kelli Y. |date=2015 |title=Issei Women and Work: Washerwomen, Prostitutes, Midwives, and Barbers |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/600879 |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=119–148 |doi=10.1353/hjh.2015.0011 |hdl=10524/56609 |issn=2169-7639|hdl-access=free }}</ref> ''Issei'' women were instrumental in fostering social cohesion and preserving Japanese culture through the establishment of community organizations. [[Shizue Iwatsuki]] founded the Japanese Women’s Society in Hood River, Oregon, which provided a vital social network for Japanese immigrant women while ensuring the continuation of cultural traditions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shizue Iwatsuki (1897–1984) |url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/iwatsuki_shizue_1897_1984_/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.oregonencyclopedia.org |language=en}}</ref> 

''Issei'' women divided their time between working and keeping house. Many described their lives as a constant cycle of labor, balancing agricultural work with domestic responsibilities. They frequently referred to their husbands as "Meiji men," describing them as embodying the patriarchal ideals of late Meiji Japan. These men often avoided household or childcare duties, leaving Issei women to shoulder most of the physical and emotional labor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Takaki |first=Ronald |title=Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, Updated and Revised Edition |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1998 |isbn=978-0316831307}}</ref>