| From The Newspaper (29) Gender (5) |
April 6, 2023
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| In the new law, 'Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life', about how female workers can show their ability, the website added two points: ・It should be natural for men to take part in their home lives. Because of an aging society, a low birth-rate, and increasing number of double-income families, it should be increasing for men to take part in housework, childcare, care of the aged, etc. If men support their home lives, women's burden will decrease, thus women's contribution at work can proceed optimally. In this meaning, men's working environment, in which they can use paid-leave easily, is important. ・Not to disturb a woman's career-upward mobility. There is a word 'Mommy Track', which disturbs women's career-up path. 'Mommy Track' means that when women  return after their childbirth, as they need childcare, they tend not to overwork, tend to leave early, and take days off often. It can make them be given only easy tasks, thus, naturally they will lose the chances to be promoted. In order to improve this situation, a supporting system is needed. In the law, employers are demanded to check the following items and to analyze the reasons and problems. 1. The percentage rate of female workers as a whole of their new employees, so that the company doesn't become advantageous for men. 2. The difference in the length of working years before retirement between men and women in order for women, as their working years increase, the retiring rate isn't going up. 3. The workers' working hours so that their working hours aren't unnecessarily long. 4. The rate of the female workers in managerial positions so there aren't too few female workers in managerial positions. The government prepares a tool in the website to analyze a company's situations easily. Employers can have a plan and announce their plans to the company and can implement those changes. The government will give a qualification to model companies. The website introduced two companies which took the qualification. [Company A] This company wanted their workers to stay in the company for a long time. In the business genre of this company (the website didn't mention the business, but maybe a software company or tech-related), workers tended to change their job places easily, and it has become difficult to retain good workers. The company decided the target to reduce the workers' quitting rate by 5% or more. They appealed that female workers could work continually after their marriages and childbirth. The company enhanced the working atmosphere by allowing such measures as being able to work at home, using flex-time, etc. [Company B] This company's problem was that even though 70% of all the workers were women, very few female workers aimed to be in managerial positions. This company made a goal that more than 25% of female workers would be in managerial positions (a section boss or higher) in 5 years. They found out that the reason why female workers didn't aim to be in managerial positions was because of the necessary overtime hours required in managerial positions. The company has been reviewing their working styles and has reduced overtime hours, subsequently the women's rate in entering into managerial positions has been increasing. He found a website that the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare is running that has listed a lot of certified and awarded companies for this issue. He checked the top ranked award, called 'platina', that has 11 companies that have received the award. He tried checking one of them. (To be continued) |
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No. 516
*take part in :参加する
*optimally :最適に、最高に
*mobility :流動性
*track :わだち、走路
*qualification :資格、証明書
*retain :保持する、雇用しておく
*enhance :高める
*subsequently :結果として