| From The Newspaper (26) Gender (2) |
March 17, 2023
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| After he understood why Japan was in the 116th position, the main reason being because of the bad result in the 'Political Participation' category, he re-read the article about the research by The Economist. Just before International Women's Day on March 8th, The Economist announced their research for gender equality in the working situation of 29 countries, which was selected from 38 countries of OECD. The study used 10 items like the gaps between men and women in 'salary', 'education', 'labor', etc. Japan's ranking was 28th, the second worst. The article mentioned some reasons, for example, the female Diet members were about 10%, while the average of other nations were more than 30%. But, the article also pointed out that one of the 10 items, 'Paid leave rate of fathers', Japan was No.1. He felt something strange. In one sense, for women, a fathers' paid leave is rather more important than whether politicians are male or female. He decided to search for more information, and found a website which analyzed that research by The Economist. The title of the research by The Economist was 'Glass-ceiling Index'. He had heard that 'glass-ceiling' means an invisible barrier  that prevents women from being promoted to higher positions. Out of the 29 countries, the worst 4 are Korea (29), Japan (28), Turkey (27), and Switzerland (26). And, those rankings haven't changed since 2017. The top 4 are Iceland (1), Sweden (2), Finland (3), and Norway (4). Those 4 also have been positioned in the top 4 since 2017. The ranking in 2023 is as follows: 1: Iceland, 2: Sweden, 3: Finland, 4: Norway, 5: Portugal, 6: France, 7: Belgium, 8: New Zealand, 9: Denmark, 10: Slovakia, 11: Spain, 12: Poland, 13: Austria, 14: Canada, 15: Australia, 16: Italy, 17: Britain, 18: Ireland, OECD average, 19: United States, 20: Netherlands, 21: Czech Republic, 22: Germany, 23: Hungary, 24: Greece, 25: Israel, 26: Switzerland, 27: Turkey, 28: Japan, 29: South Korea The website explained about the 10 categories one by one, which decided this ranking: (1) Higher education This is a kind of irony, he thought. Except for the 4 countries, in 25 countries, more female students go to college (or other higher educational schools) than male students. In Iceland (No.1), 16.4% more women go to college than men. In Japan (No.22), 2.6% more women do. (2) Labor-force participation rate In all of the countries, the number of female workers is less than male workers. In Finland (No.1), 3.2% fewer (female workers). In Japan (No.23), 13.3% fewer. Turkey was the worst: 39.6% fewer. The author of the website mentioned that this low number stood out from the others, maybe it was because in Islamic countries, there remains a custom that wives stay at home. (3) Gender wage gap In none of the countries were female workers' wages more than males. Belgium (No.1) : minus 3.8% than males. Japan (No.27) : minus 22.1%. (4) Net child-care costs (nursery school cost by average salary) Italy (No.1) : zero. It means that nursery schools are free (or subsidy will cover the cost perfectly). Japan (No. 11) : 14%. (5) Paid leave for mothers Hungary (No.1) : 79.6 weeks. Japan (No.10) : 35.8 weeks. (6) Paid leave for fathers Japan (No.1) : 31.9 weeks. Korea (No.2) : 25.2 weeks. OECD average : 6.5 weeks. This means that Japan is beyond the others. (7) GMAT exams taken by women (GMAT（Graduate Management Admission Test）is a standard test for entering business schools) Finland (No.1) : 52.6%. Japan (No.27) : 25.1% (8) Women in managerial positions Portugal (No.1) : 48%. Japan (No.29) : 12.9%. OECD average : 33.8%. This means that Japan is very bad. (9) Women on company boards France (No.1) : 46.1%. Japan (No.27) : 15.5%. OECD average : 30.1%. Japan is very bad again. (10) Women in parliament New Zealand (No.1) 50.4%. Japan (No.28) : 9.9%. OECD average : 33.8%. (To be continued) |
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No. 513
*diet :国会
*paid leave :有給休暇
*parliament :国会