Surprisingly few women students attend Japan’s top university. At the University of Tokyo (often referred to in Japan as Todai for short) only 1 in 5 students are women. This gender imbalance represents a real national problem, and potentially a serious impediment both to the Japanese government’s recent efforts to increase the share of women in leadership/executive positions and to broader efforts aimed at addressing long-standing gender inequities throughout the country.
Even though this is a serious problem, there is little research on why Todai has so few women students. Anecdotally, it seems that families often steer their daughters away from prestigious schools, claiming that it’s a waste of time for women to work so hard or that the professional world is the province of men. Arguments like this probably deter some women from applying.
A recent survey that we conducted, though, suggests an additional reason for the low women attendance rates at Todai. We fielded a survey with a national sample of 2,389 Japanese residents in February. In one part of the survey, we asked men and women to tell us how much they agreed with a set of statements on gender issues. Respondents could indicate that they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with each claim.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.