Progress and problems of gender equality in Japanese academics and geosciences

• Main Author: R. S. Hori
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2020-09-01
• Series: Advances in Geosciences
• Online Access: https://adgeo.copernicus.org/articles/53/195/2020/adgeo-53-195-2020.pdf

<p>In its gender equality status, Japan lags behind the European Union (EU) and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Only 16.7&thinsp;% of academic staff in national universities are women. Although there has been a slow improvement during the last 45 years, the percentage of female staff remains particularly low in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. In 2018, female stuff accounted for only 12.3&thinsp;% in agriculture, 8.7&thinsp;% in science, and 6.2&thinsp;% in engineering. The number of female graduate students and the number of female members of the Japanese geoscience societies have been steadily increasing since the 1998 campaign that increased the total number of graduate school places. However, low representation of females in academic job positions, as well as among the recipients of academic awards, suggests that a strong unconscious bias against women still exists in Japan. Continuing public attention to these issues is essential for the improvement of the situation.</p>