The term “gender equality” can be defined as the state of equal ease of access to resources as well as opportunities irrespective of gender. The resources include economic participation as well as decision making, the state of valuing various kinds of behaviors and aspirations. The concept of gender equality includes both men as well as women are free to develop their personal abilities and posses the right to make choice ignoring the limitation established by stereotypes, rigid gender role as well as prejudices. However, in several developed as well as developing country, gender equality is yet to be reached. One of the major examples of 1st world countries where gender inequality still exist is Japan. In spite of being a high income society, Japan poses high level of gender inequality. The chief reason behind gender inequality and welfare is the persistence of gender norms. Gender inequality demonstrates different aspects of social life from the family to political depiction in the nation. The gender inequality is most prominent in the Japanese workforce (Shirahase, 2014). This evil factor is imposing negative impact on the further prosperity of the country. In the following paragraphs, analysis of the issue of Gender inequality in Japan will be conducted. Along with this, relevant solution to the issue will also be discussed in this report.
The selected case has pointed out how sexual discrimination takes place at a recognized government medical university in Japan. Investigator have found that the management of the Tokyo Medical University intentionally and systematically altered the scores of the internal exams in order to limit the number of female students as well as to award the less qualified male applicants. This fraud as been taking place in the mentioned institution since decades and the rationale that has been stated is that female professionals are prone to leave job after childbirth which impact negative impact on the Company. The institution had initially denied the fraud. However, finally the truth came to light after major investigations took place.
It spite of being one of the world’s most affluent, advanced and democratic countries, Japan has still remained stubbornly regressive. Even in this era of modernization, Japanese women are kept away from business and politics by the society. Even at workplace major discrimination takes place on the basis of the gender. According to researchers, the operation against women in Japanese workplace has its root in the social structure of the nation. The family values of the nation have been designed by the typical female as caregiver and male as earner division of labor (Chiavacci & Hommerich, 2016). Till the mid 1970’s Japanese women were not allowed to step out of the house. Even in this era of modernization, in cases where both the parents are working, Japanese females are expected to perform household chores after returning from work while it is justified for males to spend time in recreation like watching television or performing sports activities. According to Okoshi et al. (2014), the term “relation less society” struck popularly within Japan. Large Japanese organizations are found to be exploiting the conservative family values of the nation. Men are supposed to invest a major portion of the day for work and as a result possess very less amount of time for the family (Hiyoshi et al., 2014). The corporate work regulations in Japan also support this and as a result of that gap between men and the household are increasing. In order to take care of the household activities, women are compelled to stay home and take care of the family.
According to recent survey, the percentage of female senior officials, lawmakers and managers have got diminish by approximately 9 percent over the last decade, ranking Japan near the bottom when it comes to gender equality. According to Lee, (2014), male centric labor practices can be considered as a major reason behind this fact. According to Kashima Takashi, the chair person of Japan Association for the Advancement of Working Women, the work culture of the nation still revolves round the fulltime male employees working long hours. The country also lacks proper maternity leave policy, which makes it highly difficult for female employees to return back to work after giving birth. Almost 78 percent of the females who are working in the managerial posts in Japan are found to be either unwed or chosen to have no offspring (Lise et al., 2014). Similar situation can be evidenced when it comes to the political realm. In spite of the fact that new legislations have been passed in order to address gender inequality and empower women, the rules possess several shortcomings that includes lack of recognized minimum standards, scarce structure for public disclosure as well as inadequate structure for addressing career development for non-regular female staffs (Kim & Shirahase, 2014).
According to researchers, Japan poses vertical sex segregation which is a term used for defining the absence of female workers in workplace higherchy and large concentration of women in the low level jobs (Snipp & Cheung, 2016). In Japan, the business system gives priority to lifelong employment of male worker in order to sustain the male-breadwinner family model along with insider oriented management. Considering the fact that Japanese organization possesses a strong relationship with their stakeholders that includes large banks, financial firms, the Japanese government and courts, reluctance can be observed in order to maintain Japanese businesses and political elites. As a result of this constant discrimination, the rank of the nation, when it comes to gender equality, has dropped to 114th among 149 countries (Yasukawa & Nomura, 2014). Not only this, since Japan is suffering from aging population, lack of female labor is resulting in fast shrinking work force.
In order to eradicate the issue, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe has implemented several steps. For instance, while several developed countries are opening the gate to the immigrants in order to deal with the issue of shrinking workforce, Abe embraced a plan to ease the way for millions of married as well as middle-aged women to return to work. According to researchers, this act possess the potential to add more than 7.1 million staffs to the Japanese workforce and thus lift the gross domestic product of the nation by approximately 13 percent (Snipp & Cheung, 2016). Not only this, a more inclusive economy poses the ability to create ripple effects and form a more skilled workforce and irradiating the issue of gender discrimination by putting more money in the hand of the women.
According to researchers, in order to provide the female workers the opportunity they deserve, the quota system needs to be implemented. This will help the government to prevent inequality between men and women in policy decision-making. Laws needs to be established or specifying the percentage of female candidate running elections. In order to prevent discrimination against women at executive levels, companies who do not posses female executives in a certain ration of their executive board members needs to be delisted. Yasukawa & Nomura, (2014) stated that the government of Japan should abolish the income tax deduction as well as social security premium exception for dependent spouses and in place, enhance the family care allowance. This is because the above mentioned measures often discourage several married women to seek full time employment. Eliminating the spousal exemption and providing care allowance will incentivized several women to take fulltime jobs as well as leadership position in the workplace (Tomaskovic-Devey, 2014). Large organizations need to scrutinize the yardsticks that are used for recruitment and promotion, while eliminating evaluation criteria that sorts out certain candidates systematically. Besides that, a legal ceiling as well as penalties needs to be introduced for overtime work along with lifting compulsory job transfers that posses the potential to disrupt the family life.
Conclusion
From the above it can be concluded that it is highly crucial for Japan to eradicate the issue of gender inequality in order to maintain as well as enhance its global position in terms of economy. More working women mean more growth, especially when it comes to rapidly aging society. Participation of women poses the ability to alleviate the negative impact of the shrinking workforce. Besides that, the quota system will help the women to regain their professional status in the workplace. Legal penalties against organizations that implement improper work life balance in the life of the employees will not only change the perspective of family value but will also encourage women to apply for full time employment. The measures taken for alleviating the number as well as status of women by incorporating them in the workforce will not only solve the issue of shrinking workforce but will also diminish the social discrimination against women eventually.
Reference list
Chiavacci, D., & Hommerich, C. (Eds.). (2016). Social inequality in post-growth Japan: Transformation during economic and demographic stagnation. Taylor & Francis.
Hiyoshi, A., Fukuda, Y., Shipley, M. J., & Brunner, E. J. (2014). Health inequalities in Japan: the role of material, psychosocial, social relational and behavioural factors. Social Science & Medicine, 104, 201-209.
Kim, Y. M., & Shirahase, S. (2014). Understanding intra-regional variation in gender inequality in East Asia: Decomposition of cross-national differences in the gender earnings gap. International Sociology, 29(3), 229-248.
Lee, J. F. (2014). A hidden curriculum in Japanese EFL textbooks: Gender representation. Linguistics and Education, 27, 39-53.
Lise, J., Sudo, N., Suzuki, M., Yamada, K., & Yamada, T. (2014). Wage, income and consumption inequality in Japan, 1981–2008: From boom to lost decades. Review of Economic Dynamics, 17(4), 582-612.
Okoshi, K., Nomura, K., Fukami, K., Tomizawa, Y., Kobayashi, K., Kinoshita, K., & Sakai, Y. (2014). Gender inequality in career advancement for females in Japanese academic surgery. The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine, 234(3), 221-227.
Shirahase, S. (2014). Social inequality in Japan. Routledge, 31-42.
Snipp, C. M., & Cheung, S. Y. (2016). Changes in racial and gender Inequality since 1970. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 663(1), 80-98.
Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2014). The relational generation of workplace inequalities. Social Currents, 1(1), 51-73.
Yasukawa, K., & Nomura, K. (2014). The perception and experience of gender-based discrimination related to professional advancement among Japanese physicians. The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine, 232(1), 35-42.
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