*note
□Gender in Japan
1ﾍﾟｰｼﾞ/1ﾍﾟｰｼﾞ
Recently, the position of women in society and that of men is at almost the same level in countries like USA, UK, and Australia. Compared to those countries, I think Japan is less sensitive about gender problems. In Japan, women are still treated in unfair way in the society. Women have some disadvantages in being women. For example, when I said to my parents that I wanted to get into a graduate school after my graduation, they said that I didn't need to go to graduate school because I am not a man. They are not mean people but they are just older than the usual parents of my friends and their way to think about gender is still old. My mother is not allowed to work outside and she has to do all the housework. My father has a pride in his work and doesn't want to let her earn money. But he is certainly masculine. He always thinks about his family members and tries to protect them. I think he thinks himself as the principal post in his family. And that was the way to think in old days. Education had been done in this somewhat discriminative way and it's not their fault. So I don't blame them for it but I think treatment of women as inferior to men doesn't work in modern society anymore.
The position of women in Japanese society has been changing a little recently. In the past, women could hardly have an opportunity to get promoted and earn much money but it became easy for women to promote in a company. Moreover a woman can be recognized as a principal of a company. Also I've heard that only men could enter a university in the past because people thought that women didn't need to be well-educated. But these days, it doesn't happen and women can choose whether they go to university or not freely. But still, we can see some kind of predominance of men over women. When a woman gets married and the company finds out the fact, they don't say that they want her to quit immediately but it seems like quitting a company after getting married is a natural way to go. So some people ask her about when is the date she quits will be. In fact, there are so many women who leave work to get married because they know that men don't do anything about housework and they've got to do everything after the marriage. And there's another story, when a woman dies because of a traffic accident, insurance companies give her family less money than when a man dies because of the same reason. It sounds weird because life should be treated and recognized equally. But insurance companies say that they are expecting that women's salary is lower than men's salary. Even if the situation of salary system in the office is improving recently, insurance companies refuse to change the system. I think it's not fair.
So what should be done? In my opinion, companies should make an environment which is much more comfortable for women to work even if they get married. In Japanese company's system, parents can take childcare leave for a year. But it doesn't mean both parent can take it for a year. They can take one-year childcare leave including a wife and a husband. I think it's too short to raise their child. Companies should give parents at least two-year childcare leave and pay their salaries as much as the salaries they receive before they take their childcare leave. Also, I think making a day care center in a company might be a good idea. If they make it, women can bring their children to company and go and take their children after work. Maybe it is difficult to companies because they have to hire some childcare workers in their company and pay them. But I think it's worth doing so I hope the situation will be improved in the near future. In fact, I think they should think about those things seriously because women are hesitating to get married or give birth because of this problem and it encourages Japan to be a society with a declining birthrate.
-thanks for reading =]