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Japan drops in global gender gap rankings: now 98th

The World Economic Forum released its annual gender gap ranking of 130 countries, and Japan placed 98th overall, down from the 91st place ranking it held in last year’s report. The long life expectancy of Japanese women and the availability of education were Japan’s strong points:

In health and survival, Japan ranked a relatively high 38th, but it did poorly in other categories. The country came 107th in political empowerment, 102nd in economic participation and opportunity and 82nd in educational attainment.

Japan was the lowest ranked of the G8 nations, and it was also outranked by Asian countries such as the Philippines (6), Thailand (52), China (61), Vietnam (68), Indonesia (93) and Cambodia (94). But at least it managed to outrank South Korea (108) and most of the Middle East!

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19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - November 13, 2008 at 7:32 am

Categories: Discrimination Tags: gender equality

madne0

Somehow i think the vast majority of Japanese women would still prefer to live in Japan instead of the Philippines, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Indonesia or Cambodia.

concerned Filipino

It’s okay, madne0. Japan can’t always be perfect.
The_Observer

Of course they’ll prefer Japan…its their homeland, their language and their culture.

I think that attribution of preference as a defence for Japan’s unjust patriachal system is weak at best.

Merit should be the judge instead of gender (or race, if I may add).

Denying Japan’s ailing economy a wealth of human resource is merely taking a step backwards. There is so much potential considering their prospective education levels and culture of hard work.

The arguement that it will drop population growth is at best ludicrous for the current structure has done little to improve nor arrest the poor growth rate.

Your best arguement would be, “Is this cultural imperialism? Are we neo-colonizing Japan?”. Those arguements are very valid in a land where they take lots of national pride and a land where the injuries of war (with the West) hide somewhere in the consciousness.

Karasu-kun

That’s very astute, especially the last paragraph. I think very few people actually consider that fact when talking about the influx of foreigners and issues of immigration. Granted, I think it’s necessary when you factor in the declining birth rate, and I don’t think it’s approaching colonizing quite yet. However, in the future I think those “injuries” you mentioned will continue to take their toll more and more, as they have in the national consciousness for half a century so far.

Montsan

Still a long ways to go. This makes me want to review Japanese gender studies conducted in the past eight or so years it has been since I last studied this topic.

It also makes me want to go back to Japan for a visit, but we can’t all get everything we want.
DC

Pathetic performance by Japan. I’d find it almost amusing that a G8 country could rank so badly, were it not for that the fact that my Japanese fiance, a 35 year-old architect, has dispaired of ever finding a decent job in Japan again. She never gets past the ‘what are your maternal plans?’ stage of the interview.

leitmotiv

100% agreement. I know many Japanese women with similar experiences. 35yo women who dont want to be OLs (tea service) and have valuable skills are clearly unwanted in corporate Japan. If they excellent english skills, it seems to even count more against them (because they are then percieved to be “returnees” to Japan – and during interviews they are inevitably pressed to explain why they returned – as if that is somehow relevant). Simply astonishing.
momonga

Exactly!
On every interview I go, there’s always This Question:”But you are married ,right. And you plan to have children…”
A company I used to work before hired me on the ridiculous condition that I’ll part my (then) boyfriend in order to dedicate my time and my life to the company’s unrealisitic dreams.Some companies (Hitachi for example) do hire and encourage married women, but still many others are reluctant to do it.

stereo

When you look deeper into the research, you will find it a joke.

For example, according to the report, Japan ranks 88th in the field of the Educational Attainment. The score for Educational Attainment is made up of four components, which are Literacy Rate, Enrolment in Primary Education, Enrolment in Secondary Education, Enrolment in Tertiary Education. Japan ranks #1 in the first 3 components, but ranks 90th in Enrolment in Tertiary Education, because the rates are 54% for females and 61% for males.

Japan
Enrolment in Tertiary Education
Female: 54%, Male: 61%, Female to Male Ratio 88%, Rank 90.

Now, look at Jamaica that ranked #1 in overall Educational Attainment as well as Enrolment in Tertiary Education.

Jamaica
Enrolment in Tertiary Education
Female: 26%, Male: 12%, Female to Male Ratio 229%, Rank 1.

So, the report says Jamaican women are better off because more females go to tertiary education than males, ignoring only 26% of them can afford to it compared to 54% for Japanese women.

The same goes with Health and Survival. Both Japan and Hungary ranked #1 in Healthy Life Expectancy.

Healthy Life Expectancy
Japan
Female: 78, Male: 72, F to M Ratio 1.08, Score 1.06, Rank 1.
Hungary
Female: 68, Male: 62, F to M Ratio 1.10, Score 1.06, Rank 1.

Who would think Hungarian women are as good as Japanese women when it comes to Life expectancy. Japanese women have 10 years more healthy life expectancy than hungarian women.

The other component of Health and Survival is Sex Ratio at Birth.
Sex Ratio at Birth (female/male)
Japan: 0.94 Rank 88.
Iran: 0.95 Rank 1.
Italy: 0.93 Rank 112.
So, Iran is the best place for baby girls, followed by Japan, and Italy is the worst place. Who would believe that?

I think they should find better ways to spend their money.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Stereo:

The gender gap survey measures the female-male gap, not quality of life. It is not a measure of “the best place” for women, nor does it attempt to state that women in the highest ranked countries are “better off.”

To quote from the survey’s explanation:

The Gender Gap Index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. By providing a comprehensible framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps and by revealing those countries that are role models in dividing these resources equitably between women and men, serves as a catalyst for greater awareness as well as greater exchange between policymakers.
ponta

Exactly.
And it does not show some women are where they are because of undue discriminations as some posters seem to assume.
While I agree that more women’s talent should be utilized one way or another in politics and workforce, the causes of gender gap is not so simple　as it appears.
Note also it is conservatives as well as feminist that promoted Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society.
http://www.nagaitosiya.com/a/gender_free.html
Karasu-kun

A lot of people here seem to just be relating their personal experiences, and not going off of the report, which makes it more relevant and grim, it nothing else.

Pingback: Global Gender Gap Report 2008 « Kitsune’s Thoughts
leitmotiv

“And it does not show some women are where they are because of undue discriminations as some posters seem to assume”

No it does not – correct. But anyone who looks can see – with their own two eyes – that SOME sort of significant work-place sex discrimination is clearly going on in Japan. The survey just affirms this view (for Japan) and offers some scope of the problem (too large for such an otherwise advanced economy imho).

ponta

I am glad you agreed.

In other words the fact that the women who were rejected does not mean they are rejected because of sex discriminations; they might be just unqualified. We should be careful in citing personal cases in this regard because we don’t know the cases represent the case of sex discriminations.

That said, that does not mean there are no sex discriminations either.

And it is true that there are some SOME sort of significant work-place sex discrimination in Japan as well as in other places. (Do you not want to admit that there are some sort of significant work-lace sex discrimination in your country?)
That might be one cause for the gender gap.

I sincerely hope that the woman who are qualified and willing get the job they deserve. And I also hope their talents should not be wasted and that the society should set up the circumstance where married men and women with children can work in comfortable conditions. I

But we have bunch of problems.

(1)There are other factors for the gender gap.

The report wisely put:

Variables related to country specific policies, culture or customs—factors that we consider to be “input” or “means” variables—are not included in the Index,

Now the idea of women’s liberation and feminism is not new in Japan.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/女性解放運動

And we have political and legal right to equal treatment and Japanese feminists are proud that Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society was set up.(Did you read the site I linked?)

I wonder what it is that keeps the gender gap still wide in Japan despite the fact there are many feminists, despite the fact that there are laws that protects woman’s right and despite the fact that there is a law that facilitate the companies to take positive actions.

I sometimes talk with young women and a bit surprised to know some of them “still” just want to find right man and get married and quit job.
Does father dominates in the family in Japan and tells the daughter what to do as some western media depicts? I don’t think so and yet some sorts of force are operating, You might call it bio-power after Foucault or gender-expectation based on social theory.Whatever it is, we have to take these factors other than explicit undue discriminations into consideration.

(2)Is no gender gap the ideal society we are striving for?

I don’t insist on sticking with tradition and I am against binding men and women in the traditional role and yet the right of men and the women who prefer to take traditional role or the right of men who want to keep house rather than being breadwinner also should be protected and as such the society can be still just society, imo. That means that the snapshot this Index shows does not necessarily reflects how just the country is with regard to gender.

Now I am not saying that Japan has nothing to do;in fact, Japan has a lot to do. But I don’t like the implication Japan should be like top ranked countries, or G8 countries in this respect without giving due respect to cultural, historical, traditional and economical differences.

concerned Filipino

If people are going to say that the right of modern women to still choose to be housewives should be respected, then maybe they should also stop looking down on housewife as career with the same breath, especially seeing as being a housewife is already effectively unpaid labor.

ponta

I’m not sure how things are going on in Filipine, but who is looking down on housewife? and who holds the purse?.
A husband and wife decide together what to buy for the family and when they should divorce, they divided the property evenly.
A women has legal and political right to equality,and if a wife decide to work outside while a husband keep house, that is okay, if they decide to work outside and keep house together that’s okay too, if a husband decide to work outside while a wife keep house, that’s okay too. There are variety of ways of running a family and their right to choose life style should be protected.

If someone were discriminated on a gender basis, that would be a problem. But that is another story and that is something this Index does not say. If you are interested in the income gap between men and women , look at the link I put up.

mye saito

that’s why i would never live in Japan, in the time i spend there for vacation i saw that women don’t have any valuable space in most of companies. it is still very rare to see women in high position, or graduating at some courses like law.
MikeGuest

This research seems to be flawed in several ways. First, it claims to be measuring “opportunities” and allotment of resources. So, does Jamaica really allow for the greatest “opportunities” for women in tertiary education when only 26% of the women are taking tertiary education (vs. 54% for Japan)? Surely, this is measuring attainment, not opportunity, or allotment of resources. If a study does not measure what it claims to be measuring it is effectively invalid.

Not only that but this study is self-admittedly measuring attainment vis-a-vis gender within each individual country (but then ranks these countries against each other). This means that local factors should be essential variables but this study admittedly fails to consider them. For example, a poor country with large extended families might send a woman out to work as a domestic helper to earn money while the male stays at home and hangs out. It seems unfair, exploitative and sexist, but this study would regard such women as being more “empowered” than the males.

In Japan, men who work hand their paypackets over to the wife, who then dole out an allowance to the man. The wife then makes virtually all economic decisions within the home (education too), but according to this study such women are not economically, or otherwised, empowered. One can also see large numbers of young (and not so young) Japanese women with visibly large disposable incomes, often living with the parents but enjoying gourmet food trips, shopping in Omotesando, traveling to Bali and the like but this Life of Riley would be considered disadvatanged by this study who would see salarymen who log 16 hours a day stuck on trains or in a dank office as having more “opportunities”. Hmmm.

Ponta has already pointed out that opportunity should include the concept of choice and I agree. That many women in Japan choose to reduce working hours or quit work after having children (my wife is fully-accredited J professional who is happy to make such a choice) while the men have to continue with salaryman drudgery to provide is not reflected in this study or is seen as disadvantageous for women.

Women can and do meet unfair and delibitating practices in Japan (and elsewhere) but this study doesn’t reflect that in any meaningful way. Also, the idea that gender implies a clear role division in many, many societies should not automaically be tagged as disadvantaged or unempowering- that would be a cultural bias. The notion of “power” should not be limited to corporate boardrooms and parliaments.

Japan drops in global gender gap rankings: now 98th

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