By Theofanis Fousekis,
Undoubtedly, the participation of women in the development of the economy of each country has been a crowning achievement of the feminist movement, at least in Western countries. Especially in Europe, the participation rate of women in the labor sector reaches 50% of the European population, of which around 40% holds managerial positions.
The same optimistic percentages do not apply to Eastern countries, where only 36% of Asia’s total GDP is made up of women. After all, this is why some countries which still retain strong traditional elements in their way of life, such as Japan, have introduced a new economic policy aiming at gradually increasing the participation of the female population in the labor market: “Womenomics”.
The word consists of two components, “women” and “economics”. This policy was a creation of the then new Japanese government of Shinzo Abe in 2013. It is based on the idea, that a better exploitation of the skills of half of Japan’s population, i.e., women, will breathe a sigh of relief into the country’s indigenous labor shortage.
The lack of labor is due to the population’s structure of the state. The average life expectancy is 85 years, which means that a large percentage of people cannot work. At the same time, the country is facing a giant problem of low birth rate, with a birth rate of 1.46 per woman, leading to a shortage of workers. These events, combined with the discouragement of economic migrants in general, who accounted for only 2% of the population in 2016, have created a huge gap in the labor market that the government hoped would be filled by the womenomics program.
At a time when the country is struggling with labor shortages, women’s acceptance in the labor market is minimal, although Japan is known for its high literacy rate. More specifically, the percentages of women with a higher education degree range to 59%, while those of men to 52%. However, the high levels of education of women have not yet opened the doors of the labor market for three reasons.
For starters, the economic policies pursued by the “land of the rising sun” (i.e. Japan) degrade women’s participation in the labor system. For example, there is jurisprudence according to which a man is entitled to a reduced tax for families where the woman earns less than $ 12,000 a year, which discourages many of them to develop high work goals in order to be “attractive” to future suitors.
In addition, the country suffers from a lack of care units for young children under the age of 12. As a result, women after pregnancy take up to 10 years until they return to work. Finally, society itself does not help women re-enter the market after a pregnancy as promotions are usually given to those who will either work overtime or socialise off-the-clock with their manager and associates, a fact that is perceived as a commitment to the profession in developing employment relationships. It is obvious that for women with young children this is not possible and therefore they may never return to work.
So one might ask: is “womenomics” the solution to the gender gap in Japan? So far, more and more women have started to penetrate the workforce with the participation percentage reaching 66%. At the same time, the construction of young child care units was strongly promoted by the government. In fact, in 2016 for the first time a woman governor was elected in Tokyo, while in the 2020 elections two women won ministerial positions in the new government of Yoshihide Suga. There are other factors of optimism such as the gradual abolition of the male “macho” stereotype of working until midnight and overtime.
Nevertheless, a large percentage of women react to the extremely slow evolution of the system. For them, a strong power devoid of entrenched sexism is the only solution that will open the doors of complete economic emancipation of women. It is, therefore, clear that a similar policy can be established in all countries of the world, regardless of the percentage of women in the labor market, with the aim of further expanding the right to equality between the sexes.
References
- The Japan Times, “Japan firms fall woefully of goals on women in management”. Available here
- The Japan Times, “Preventing issue fatigue on womenomics”. Available here
- The Japan Times, “Womenomics: Mend the Gap”. Available here
