IGWS Newsletter Vol. 45
- Report and Students’ Feedback on the 35th IGWS Seminar
- The 11th Annual Symposium on Graduation Theses and Projects about Gender
- The Debriefing Session of the Asian Health Institute (AHI), “Living as a Dalit: Listen to the voices of people oppressed in Indian society”
- Essays from Alumni, “As a Female Driver’”
- Reflections on gender in everyday life
- Announcement of the Lunchtime Sessions
Report of the 35th IGWS Seminar: “Who is Female Success For?: A beneficial talk about the ‘Female success promotion law’ for men and women before job-hunting”
Speaker: Ms. Masumi Minagawa (Sociologist, Part-time lecturer at Waseda University)
On December 1, 2017, we invited Ms. Masumi Minagawa, a sociologist, to hold the 35th IGWS seminar. Ms. Minagawa talked about the outline and implementation of “Act on Promotion of Female Employment (a law concerning the promotion of activities for women’s professional lives)” established in 2015.
The purpose of this law is to increase the number of employed women and the number of years of continued employment without a so-called “Mommy Track,” and as a result, to reorganize companies to increase the number of female managers. The law aims to encourage employers to use the “visualization method” to set goals and timetables. Ms. Minagawa said the students should utilize these data for their own professional development and job hunting.
The 11th Annual Symposium on Graduation Theses and Projects about Gender
The meeting was held on January 26, 2018. The names of the students and their theses are as follows:
ISOWA, Ayane. Faculty of Media Theories and Production, Department of Media Theories and Production.
“From Girls’ Manga to BL (Boys’ Love) Manga: Why do “Bad” Girls choose BL?”
HIROTA, Momoko. Faculty of Media Theories and Production, Department of Media Theories and Production. “A Map for Love”
SUZUKI, Kae. Faculty of Letters, Department of Education. “A female image and its social significance in Japanese drama series: As a new teaching material for social studies”
KINOSHITA, Shiho. Faculty of Letters, Department of Japanese Language and Literature. “Desired ‘idols’: Over the feminine representation of Soot Smoke and Sanshiro”
SUZUKI, Moeka. Faculty of Letters, Department of Japanese Language and Literature.
What does a world covered by passion bring?: A study on Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Swastika”
SONODA, Mirai. Faculty of Letters, Department of Japanese Language and Literature.
“A dream of modern times and girls drawn in Kyusaku Yumino’s Girls’ Hell”
KONDO, Mayu. Faculty of Letters, Department of Japanese Language and Literature.
“An opportunity for renouncing the world to become a Buddhist priest, in Danshoku-Okagami (Men’s Scenics)”
The Debriefing Session of the Asian Health Institute (AHI), “Living as a Dalit: Listen to the voices of people oppressed in Indian society”
On November 21, 2017, we held a debriefing session of the Asian Health Institute (AHI) in Nagakute Campus. The speaker was Ms. Murugan Kalirathnam who is living in Tamil Nadu, India. Based on the experience of continuing NGO activities for a long time in India, Ms. Kalirathnam talked about the situation regarding Dalit (discriminated individuals outside the caste system) and lives of women in Indian society as a Dalit herself.
Essays from Alumni “As a female driver’”
Ms. Harumi Kurahashi who graduated from the psychology department of ASU in 2013 contributed an essay for us.
Four years have passed since I joined Kinki Nippon Railroad. Currently I work as a driver, mainly from Nagoya to Yokkaichi and sometimes to the furthest, Matsusaka. In this workplace, females still make up the minority at about 10% of all drivers and conductors. I think one of the reasons is that there is still a strong image of men as train crew members. In addition, female crewmembers would find it difficult to work night-shifts after taking maternity or childcare leave.
Now, an action plan based on the Act on Promotion of Female Success is being formulated in our company. Accordingly, there are systems that enable women to continue their work, such as the reduction of working hours, and some people actually use them to return. Because people work in this profession for their entire careers, I would like to use these systems and continue to work in our company in the future. It is ideal for me to encourage children, especially girls, to be a train crew members by seeing me working. Since there are only a few female express train drivers, I also want to continue working as a driver so that I can become an express train driver.
Reflections on gender in everyday life
Ms. Yuki Kokubo of the Department of Health and Medical Sciences at ASU contributed an article about gender based on her own experience.
After marriage, I became more conscious about gender compared to when I was in my twenties. Women’s major life milestones in their 20s include marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, child rearing, and so on. My friends and I talked mainly about these topics. We occasionally shared common problems regarding our families and husbands, and often exchanged opinions on the roles of husbands (men) and wives (women).
In the seminar from the other day, I learned about entrenched stereotypes about gender role sharing (e.g., “husbands must work outside the home and wives should protect the home”). I think that the gender wage gap may be related to gender role stereotypes. In my house, my husband and I share most of the housework, and I also have less fixed ideas about gender role sharing. In my opinion, it is because I earn almost the same wage and work almost the same amount as my husband. Therefore, there is virtually no difference between us as workers.
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