Update: Spotlight on Asia 2014 (part 2): Japan Continues to Lag in Diversity Rankings

Welcome the The Glass Hammer’s “Spotlight on Asia” week! We will be highlighting successful women working in Asia all week long!

By Beth Senko

For all of its years as a global economic power, cultural issues and possibly a protracted economic downturn have limited gender diversity in the Japanese workplace. Japan consistently falls near the bottom of the rankings for gender diversity in the workplace. Women hold 2% of board positions (GMI) and 9% of senior management roles (Grant Thorton) according to recent studies.

Hiromi Ishizuka, Professor at the School of Management, Sanno University, recently wrote an article for the World Economic Forum’s blog entitled, “Are Women Really ‘Shining’ in Japan?”, outlining women’s position in the Japanese workforce and the outlook for gender diversity in Japan. Professor Ishizuka attributes some of the lack of gender diversity to “long-standing Japanese cultural norms, including an historic traditional split in gender roles and a slow pace of career advancement overall.”

Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, believes that getting more women into the workplace will help Japan’s long sluggish economy. The government is supporting the “20-30” campaign, which aims to raise the percentage of women in management positions from the current 10% to 30% by 2020. However, when Japan’s gender gap is looked at more broadly, as in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap measurement, Japan ranks 105th of 136 countries overall. It is an even lower 118th in terms of “political empowerment” – which demonstrates a low percentage of women in decision-making government roles. All in, a sluggish economy, slow pace of career advancement and a low level of women in political decision-making roles suggest that Japan may continue to lag other developed economies in gender diversity for some time.

South Korea Tries to Learn from Japan’s Diversity Shortfalls
South Korea shares a number of characteristics with Japan, perhaps in part to the Japanese occupation from 1905-1945. The two countries also share political, economic and religious/social similarities. Like Japan, South Korea ranks poorly in terms of gender diversity in the workforce with just 2.4% of board members being women according to Korn Ferry’s study, The Diversity Scorecard 2013: Measuring Board Composition in Asia Pacific.

But South Korea holds a few cards enabling it to increase gender diversity at a faster rate than Japan. Unlike Japan, South Korea has women in top governmental positions. South Korea elected its first female president, Park Geun-hye, in 2013 and its first woman Prime Minister, Han Myeong-sook, served from 2006-2007.

Women have embraced government work in South Korea for nearly 20 years. A 2010 article from The New York Times comments, “Last year, 47% of those who passed the state examination that selects midlevel officials to be groomed for senior posts in agencies other than the Foreign Ministry were women. In 1992 it was 3.2% percent.” The number of women applying for government jobs is so high that South Korea’s government revised its new hire quotas to ensure that at least 30% of the jobs (excluding police and military) go to men.

South Korea has also had a more robust economy than Japan in recent decades, spurring the need for additional workers and opening the doors to women. In addition, South Korean business has embraced gender diversity. According to a 2013 study by Heidrick and Struggles, “In Asia Pacific, certain Korean companies have been clear leaders in their pursuit for gender diversity programs. One very early Korean pioneer was Samsung, whose decision in 1992 to remove gender discrimination in their recruitment policies was considered incredibly radical at the time. Over 50,000 women now work at Korea’s largest business group, with three women being promoted to executive positions in 2012 during a management reshuffle.”

However, South Korea still lags Japan in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap measure, coming in at 111th of 136 (in 2013) based primarily a low score for economic participation (118th of 136 compared with 104th for Japan). But in terms of political empowerment, South Korea comes in 86th of 136 vs. 118th for Japan. It seems reasonable to expect that with both business and government on board for improving gender diversity, South Korea will continue to improve its standings more quickly than Japan in the next few years.

The Outlook for Greater Gender Diversity in the Asian Workplace
The reasons for varying levels of gender diversity in different Asian countries are cultural, economic, historical and political. In countries where family-controlled businesses are the norm, women’s representation in the top ranks often depends largely on the balance between women and men in the family. Cultural issues such as strongly entrenched gender roles are an issue in Asian countries but also a challenge in Latin America. National policies towards healthcare, childcare, education and diversity in general affect women’s standing in the workplace as these policies can create both incentives and hurdles to a more diverse workplace.

In their 2009 book, Gendered Tradeoffs: Family, Social Policy and Economic Inequality in Twenty-One Countries,” authors Becky Pettit and Jennifer L. Hook, look at women’s employment in a number of developed countries (primarily in the EU). The authors’ analysis looks at employment factors such as: hours worked; the gap between men and women in different occupations (also known as occupational integration); and wages. It also analyzes social systems that support the ability of women to join the workforce such as childcare availability and affordability, parental leave and other policies that affect the division of labor in the home.

The authors’ approach is notable because they dig deeper into the statistics and consider the difference between full-time and part-time or part-year employment for women. The authors contend that unless it is a woman’s goal, a high proportion of women in part-time work can exacerbate gender inequality because it “decreases access to economic rewards and may lead to the persistence of inequality over the life course.” As the book illustrates, despite well-meaning policies other factors can still have a great if not greater effect on diversity and diversity limitations. Given the intense cultural, economic, historical, and political pressures placed throughout Asia, it is an especially difficult formula to achieve gender diversity.

Policies that support economic growth, including easing of credit, increasing investment incentives for business, and regulatory changes however, could be one of the biggest influences for Asia going forward, as a strong economy that needs workers is more likely to reach out to female candidates and to incorporate women into more senior roles in the workplace.