Gender equality?

In Japan the number of working women has increased in the last 30 years. In the time of the economic bubble it was assumed in most companies, that women would quit when they get married.

In recent years, gender equality in Japan has taken big steps forward. In 2013 prime minister Shinzo Abe talked to the Japanese parliament about empowering women and in 2016, a new law was put into effect, to make companies give women better chances for making a career, and in general make it easier for them to combine work and family. Combining work and family might have become easier than before, as number of women doing part time work has increased in 30 years from 6.46 million to 13.89 million. The portion of women in fulltime positions has increased only slightly.

There is still a large gap in chances for women and men. The positions with responsibility are still mostly given to men, many women also have less experience than their male counterparts. Generally speaking it is still difficult for women to make their way to high managerial positions.

Most countries have some level of gender discrimination. According to OECD data from 2016, 90% of German men and 83% of women aged 25-64, were in workforce. In Sweden actually slightly more women were in workforce, compared to men (women 90%, men 89%). In Japan portion of men working was very high, 93.5%, while only 74.1% of women were a part of the workforce. Every country has their challenges and actually the number of women working in the United States was only a little higher than in Japan.

In most Japanese families, women still do all the housework and their support is needed to let their husbands work long hours, this might be a reason for many women to choose part time jobs instead of fulltime positions. The Japanese government does work to empower women in the society just as its European counterparts, also companies change and people’s personal views change. Nevertheless, there is a long history in Japan of men having the power in the society while women care for the household, this thinking stays deep, and efforts on many levels are needed to make a change. On the other hand, there are also many women who only wish to make career and choose not to get married, instead perhaps enjoying their lives in other ways.

Currently living in Japan, I wish to bring in some Nordic influence, thus offer people an alternative way of seeing work and work-life balance etc. I wish that someday, Japanese women would not have to choose between a good career and family, they could have both.