[11] In an interview with The Japan Times, she describes her father as "a complete sexist" who had extremely high expectations of her two brothers but only considered his daughter as a "pet girl", which allowed her the "freedom to do whatever I wanted to do".

In 1982, Ueno authored The Study of the 'Sexy Girl' (セクシィ・ギャルの大研究) and Reading the Housewife Debates (主婦論争を読む), texts that would be referred to as "The Flagbearers of 1980's Feminism".

[1] The primary perspective of these works was the application of structuralist and semiotic theory to sociology in order to investigate gender-centric mechanisms in society.

This public debate coincided with the prominence of other scholars such as Asada Akira, Nakazawa Shin'ichi, and Yomota Inuhiko, a period known as the New Academicism Boom (ニュー・アカデミズム・ブーム).

[15] She retired from this position in order to take the role of Chief Director of the Women's Action Network (WAN),[16][17] an organization designed to connect and introduce feminists from different backgrounds.

[18] The Women's Action Network website hosts news, essays, popular media reviews, and promotes certain merchandise.

She opposed the criminal punishment of Park Yu-ha, who openly instigated historical revisionism on the issue of Comfort Women in South Korea, citing freedom of expression.

[22] Park Yu-ha's view of the comfort women is considered morally identical to that of 'Japanese far-right' or 'Holocaust Negationism' by many South Korean scholars.

It was Professor Park Yoo-ha who rejected the prosecution's mediation plan," he countered, after which Ueno suddenly handed over the microphone and stepped down from the podium, saying, "[I'm] busy".

[25] In 2023, Ueno's work gained sudden prominence in China after a video of her 2019 matriculation speech at the University of Tokyo went viral.