The Global Gender Gap

The World Economic Forum recently released its Global Gender Gap report for 2012. It’s a fairly interesting report. It “measure[s] gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities”, independent of the country’s development level. Based on various factors that you can read about in the report, it gives rankings in the areas of Economic Participation & Opportunity, Educational Attainment (EA), Health & Survival (HS), and Political Empowerment (PE).

Iceland was ranked #1 (out of 135 countries). It’s #1 ranking in EA and PE compensated for a ranking of 98 in HS. (It got a 27 in Economic P&O.) 

The United States was ranked #22. It was also ranked #1 in EA, was ranked #8 in Economic P&O, #33 in HS, and – where we got dragged down - #55 in PE. (I think the big things in PE are that we’ve never had a woman for President, and there aren’t that many women in Congress.)

And then there’s Japan. Japan is ranked #101 out of 135 countries. It ranked 34 in Health & Survival and 81 in Educational Attainment. However, in Economic P&O and Political Empowerment, it was ranked a depressing 102 and 110 respectively. Out of the High Income and Upper-Middle Income countries, only South Korea and 11 Middle Eastern/North African countries rank lower.

I’m not qualified to discuss this much, but I will share a few anecdotes I have heard or observed myself:

* One of my Japanese friends had a family friend that continued in school until her mid-20s. When she finished school, she had a very hard time getting a job. The reason she was given for not being hired: she would get married soon and quit.

* Along the same lines, a Japanese man I talked to returned to Japan from the U.S. with his new wife after graduate school. She had a difficult time finding a job. The reason she was given: she would have a baby and quit.

I’ve heard that these first two are starting to slowly change in response to competition from multinational companies operating in Japan, as those companies will often have more family-friendly policies.

* When I went to a government building with several other American women, a Japanese woman took us up to the meeting room. She happily commented that it was the first time she’d ever been in the elevator with only women.

* In the metro, there are priority seats designated for pregnant women and the elderly. But two pregnant women I know have both told me that men will not stand up for a pregnant woman and are stunned if a pregnant woman asks them if she can sit down. My friends have to be really aggressive if they want to use one of the priority seats on the metro.

* I have yet to see a Japanese man stand to allow a woman to have a seat – even if she’s holding a child. I have both heard from friends and personally observed that when an American stands up to allow a woman to sit on the metro, the women are happily amazed.

I've been told this is a cultural issue for Japan. Legally, women have the same rights as men. If I remember correctly, it was an American woman that got Japan to put that in their constitution after WWII. (Prior to that, only men were legally citizens.) I hope that the culture catches up with the law eventually.