University of Tokyo to double number of female professors by FY2027

When I was a student there in the 98 to 2002, I had no female professors in my department (sciences) and have no memory of female professors, and there were only a very few female students. Have things changed much? I haven't been there in a while.

The building and grounds in that picture looks run down, and in need of a face-lift, like the entire university it seems.

Nobody should be excluded from the selection process because of their race, ethnicity, gender or other factors that they can not change or control.

Obviously Todai has been discriminating against qualified female applicants. The numbers wouldn’t be so low otherwise.

Just create instant diversity won't solve any existing problem except making public image good, if they recruit people with no credibility they'll just end up badly.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/18/haruko-obokata-stap-cells-controversy-scientists-lie

The action plan states that the university aims to create "new value" through interaction and dialogue between "people of diverse origins."

Diversity comes in many forms, beside gender there is also internationalization. Just check how many professors are really non Japanese.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Without-internationalization-Japanese-higher-education-is-sinking

The University of Tokyo has said it aims to double its number of female professors and associate professors to around 400 by fiscal 2027 as it pushes for more diversity on campus.

How about hiring the best available, pushing for quality and ability?

"We want to create a lively campus by hiring women on a large scale for the first time since the university was founded" 

So the university has been discriminating against women since 1877.

That’s an aggressive target. Hope they can hit it.

“Positive discrimination” is still discrimination!

Now, well qualified men will be discriminated against.

Just employ the most suitable candidate. Women are smart enough and don’t need this positive discrimination

They just need an even and fair playing field.

painkiller

The University of Tokyo has said it aims to double its number of female professors and associate professors to around 400 by fiscal 2027 as it pushes for more diversity on campus.

How about hiring the best available, pushing for quality and ability?

I believe that is what they will do. Previously, they were obviously discriminating against women.

The discrimination against women in Japan hasn't even slightly moved in a century. It's gonna be a long stretch for this culture to obtain such a goal. As of May this year, 274 of the 2,322 professors and associate professors at the university are female. So the goal is to climb from 11.8% female faculty to 17.2% within 5 years. Hmmm.....

I think the goal should be at least 20% of a female faculty.

But even if the university reaches its target for female faculty members, it will still lag behind global standards.

There are approximately 10,062 female teachers and 8,734 male teachers at Harvard.

How about hiring the best available, pushing for quality and ability?

That's precisely what they're trying to do. The first step is to stop discriminating against women.

The building and grounds in that picture looks run down, and in need of a face-lift, like the entire university it seems

Not at all. The building looks fine. The entrance looks modelled on European gothic church architecture (perhaps they imported some) but no don't see anything wrong with the rest of it.

Cue all the whining about giving women an equal chance, and correcting for the years and years of gender discrimination. Gods forbid half the professorship is feeeemale, right boys?

Good to see more women faculty members@UTokyo. That being said, we should never compromise talent just to accommodate more women prof.

This is good news but it's not powerful much as the University of Tokyo and other Japanese universities are sliding into irrelevance.

University of Tokyo to double number of female professors by FY2027

This sounds a little too certain. I guess they have a stack of applications in the office? Or they will go to the female professor store and pick up a few along the way?

Why are they even talking about it? If you're gonna do it, just do it.

Why advertise how little women you have working as professors? It just makes things look worse.

You might as well talk about WHY more female professors weren't hired in the first place.

As usual, they just don't "GET IT" in Japanese management. No matter what company or school you go to.

WobotToday 10:55 am JST

They run the risk of quantity trumping quality making blanket statements like that. Women and men voluntarily make different choices and that produces different outcomes for a start: https://archive.md]/mztOO.

There is plenty of research that shows women are discriminated against in STEM.

I can't find it right now but I remember this psychologist (https://www.coryjclark.com/) published an article showing the less equal the sexes were in society, the more women went into STEM. So, in Europe, being quite egalitarian in that regard, women make more stereotypically feminine academic choices.

That's not the point, though, is it. Women and men both should have the freedom to chose, which means allowing equal access for both genders instead of allowing gender discrimination to inhibit both their desire and ability to go into the feild they are most interested in. How many men do you think feel held back from entering traditionally female-dominated fields because they are told it's not manly, or that they shouldn't enjoy those things?

The people wanting this will never be happy until everything is 50/50 on paper. Number of professors, their positions, their pay... meanwhile, will they be doing the same amount of work at the same quality in the same areas?

It may not be 50-50 in the end, but we won't find out until we allow real opportunity for both genders to enter the feilds of their choice without being influenced by gender stereotypes and discrimination.

As for pay, are you saying pay for men and women in the same field doing the same work shouldn't be equal?

And are you saying that women and men aren't equally capable?

And are you saying that men and women don't work equally hard?

If this is indeed what you mean, then you've just proven that gender discrimination is very much alive.

It really is that simple.

Actively seeking to hire women over men is gender discrimination.

Good luck Japan.

I’m all for equal opportunity employment. However, the decision to increase the amount of female faculty members should be on academic merit not solely on gender.

Actively seeking to hire women over men is gender discrimination.

Indeed. And actively championing bad political policies of any government is just sick.

Elvis is hereToday  01:08 pm JST

Indeed. And actively championing bad political policies of any government is just sick.

Agreed--there should be no championing of a policy to hire women over men at the University of Tokyo.

Much shock, so surprise that men see giving women fair and equal treatment as gender discrimination, but see hiring men over women as a matter of fact and So Very Normal.

Yeah, we know what your thoughts are on women in positions of power. You've made yourselves quite clear.

Only reason is the fall in international rankings. They will also "internationalise" by hiring more foreigners on limited "full-time" contracts and count them as "tentured". That's a loophole.

LindsayToday 01:03 pm JST

I’m all for equal opportunity employment. However, the decision to increase the amount of female faculty members should be on academic merit not solely on gender.

Right, because the university totally plans on hiring women who aren't competent instead of hiring women who are as competent as the men who also apply. I'm sure.

Not_my_real_nameToday  01:16 pm JST

Discimimtain seems a bit hard for some to comprehend.

Indeed it is.

From the article:

"We want to create a lively campus by hiring women on a large scale for the first time since the university was founded,"

Quite an illuminating sentence.

Why?

Not_my_real_nameToday  01:19 pm JST

That's kind of obvious don't you think? 

How come it isn't?

Professors would always be chosen on merit, not gender but that has never happened in Japan and this policy is trying to address that.

Accomplish that goal by choosing on gender, and not merit.

Got it.

University of Tokyo to double number of female professors by FY2027

This is false the article should read: University of Tokyo to double number of female faculty members by FY2027

Japan's leading university announced an action plan in fall 2021 in which it seeks to raise its ratio of female faculty members, including lecturers and assistant professors, from the current 16 percent to 25 percent or more.

I'm not sure why I'm even bothering, but it's partly at the frustration that people do not understand how discrimination happens and how serious the ramifications are.

Most people do understand, but apparently you do not, by your own statements.

What is happening here is that they are going to choose the faculty member based on merit from now on.

Not according to the article.

They are going to discriminate based on gender, and that is discrimination. We agree on that, don't we?

Good on University of Tokyo, but actions have to follow words, as they often don't on social issues.

The debate itself is so tiring.

There is so much evidence showing that women are disadvantaged in academia around the world. Saying that anything lower than roughly half of people in academia (and positions of power such as managerial positions, for that matter) being women is "artificial" or "unfair" is suggesting that women are less competent and shows the worldview of the person who says this. What's more, we're nowhere near that number and men are already whining about how they are at a disadvantage because only 90% of their colleagues are the same gender.

painkillerToday 01:38 pm JST

How come it isn't?

Professors would always be chosen on merit, not gender but that has never happened in Japan and this policy is trying to address that.

Accomplish that goal by choosing on gender, and not merit.

Got it.

Well, let's just say that it's not clear only to people who see a women getting a position over a male candidate as gender discrimination instead of the result of a choice between equally qualified candidates.

In other words, for you men who are chosen for positions over female candidates as has been the norm is not gender discrimination, but women who are equally qualified getting those positions instead IS gender discrimination.

But hey, if you want to think that a university that is held in as high regard as this one would employ unqualified female candidates just for sh!ts and giggles, then you're free to think that.

The accusations of the university doing improper segregation or discrimination based on sex are too obviously illogical and their basis can only be, ironically, based on discrimination.

If there is no difference between men and women according to intellectual or social ability then it would be expected for the ratio of genders to be similar to what is observed in the population. If that is not the case that means there is an invalid selection going on that tilt the balance.

Consequentially saying that this difference is being actively reduced (even if insufficiently according to the evidence presented in the article) does not mean the only way to do it is to ignore merit and only choose professors based on gender, since it can be assumed that merit is independent of gender then the pool of people has as many qualified individuals of either gender and would naturally lead to a balanced situation if merit was the only parameter to take care.

How strange that Tokyo University would publicly announce their new policy of sexism over qualifications.

How strange that they haven't learned a thing over the past decade.

They will soon find out that this virtue-signal, meant to appease woke western NPCs, will only embolden them to demand more.

Give an inch and they take a mile.

This will not end well for anybody.

Two female professors is better than one i guess

Those with hiring experience in tertiary education here know that women are often employed over far better-qualified male candidates purely in the name of redressing the gender imbalance within a department.

What then frequently happens is the thereby (mis)appointed female’s inadequacies are quickly manifested, leading to disruption and disquiet and dissatisfaction and bad feeling within the department and among students.

In turn, this often leads to said females claiming ‘power harassment’ and either quitting or having their contract terminated on a manufactured technicality in order to reinstate workplace harmony.

Though it cannot be admitted publicly, it is well known that this happens. It is one valid reason why many Japanese universities are reluctant to jump on the ‘equality’ bandwagon.

TT

Actually they are calling out decades of institutional sexism.

Thats called revenge.

How is it a sexist policy? (and no, they are not just choosing women over men for the sake of it, they are choosing based on merit but not passing over women from now on).

choosing a specific number, in this case double the number of women, is the exact opposite of merit.

Its called a quota.

And it will not end well for anyone, including the women who are hired based on the fact they have ovaries.

The number of totally incompetent professors must be raised for the sake of inclusivity.

Actually they are calling out decades of institutional sexism.

Thats called revenge.

In your mind, perhaps. Nowhere else.

the speed and scope of your survey is remarkable.

t's okay then if men are hired simply because of their testes?

that you came to that bizarre conclusion is shocking

ou and some others seem to be claiming that the reason there are more men in these roles is that they have more merit. And that women are just not as good at being a professor as men.

and nobody - not a single person has made that ridiculous claim on this thread.

Thats a statement made out of emotion.

Then why would you (and others) make suggestions that hiring more women will lower the standard of university education?

you're imagining opinions that don't exist.

The argument here is the poisonous ideology of quota hires, be it men or women.

Okay, great. We might be getting somewhere here.

If you are against the policy, you call 'quota hires'. I'm all ears. I'd love to know.

What is your suggestion? How would you solve the problem of sexual discrimination in Japan's tertiary dedication system? 

And don't say hire based on merit because that's what's supposed to be happening, but it doesn't because of institutionalised sabetsu. If it were based on merit we would have a lot more women in these positions. So it has to be something else.

My suggestion is this (if you live in Japan)

First prove that women are being discriminated against because of their sex, and not because they don't naturally gravitate to those positions in the first place because its not where their interests lie.

If it can be concluded without a shadow of a doubt its the former - Leave - if its too much to bear.

Japan isn't going to change its culture overnight to appease constantly complaining, angry, woke westerners. Nor should it.