| From The Newspaper (25) Gender |
March 10, 2023
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| March 8th's newspaper read that this day was International Women's Day, and how Japan was lacking in gender equality. On this day and the next day, the newspaper gave examples in various articles of how low this country's ranking is in that category. For example, one of the articles read with the title, "Japan Worst 2~ Ease for women to work~ An English magazine research, out of 29 countries, 7 years in a row." The article read that an English magazine The Economist announced twenty-nine countries' 2022 ranking for easiness for working for women. The twenty-nine countries were all developed or developing countries. The top was Iceland, the top 4 countries were all Northern European countries, while Japan was 28th, the last was Korea. Those two countries have been in the same positions since 2016, 7 years in a row. This article reminded him of the number "116th" in some research about gender equality that he had read a couple of months before. He couldn't remember the detail, but could remember that he had thought, "116th in the world? Is Japan a cold country for women, like Myanmar and Iran?" He wanted to know about the details and checked on the internet using the words '  Japan', '116th', and 'women'. The result appeared soon. It was 'Gender Gap Index'. The website was from 'Gender Equality Bureau Camber Office', it was the governmental organization. It read that 'The World Economy Forum' announced that in 2022 Japan's Gender Gap Index was the 116th out of 146 countries. In the website, there was a big graph along with its story. It was a graph consisting of a horizontal line and a vertical line which crossed at the center. From the center (0), there was a number, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, to the right, below, left, and above. The explanation read that '1' means complete equality between men and women, and each item, Education (right), Health (below), Political Participation (left), Economical Participation (above). Each item had a breakdown. [Education] Literacy ratio between men and women Elementary education ratio between men and women Intermediate education ratio between men and women Advanced education ratio between men and women [Health] Infant ratio between men and women Health longevity ratio between men and women [Political Participation] National Assembly members ratio between men and women Cabinet members ratio between men and women Heads of municipalities in recent 50 years ratio between men and women [Economical Participation] Labor ratio between men and women Wage difference in same labor position ratio between men and women Estimated income ratio between men and women Managerial positions ratio between men and women Specialists and engineers ratio between men and women There were three diamond-shaped figures on the graph: Blue (Iceland, the 1st position), Green (the average of all countries), Red (Japan). It was interesting because in Education and in Health, all of them (Blue, Green, Red) are almost '1', it means perfectly equal between men and women. For Economical Participation, Blue is about 0.8 and Green and Red is about 0.6. ... And for Political Participation, this is the main reason between the top position and the 116th position. Iceland has a high ranking on the scale at 0.8, whereas the Green (avg of all countries) mark is at 0.2; and, Japan is at 0.1, close to 0. (To be continued) |
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No. 512
*ease :簡単にする、和らげる
*horizontal :水平の
*vertical :垂直の
*breakdown :内訳
*national assembly :国会
*cabinet :内閣
*municipality :地方公共団体