12-7-2023 (TOKYO) A third-year student at one of Japan’s top engineering universities, Yuna Kato aspires to a career in research but fears starting a family could derail her goals.
Kato says relatives have discouraged her STEM ambitions, believing women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics struggle to balance work and family so have trouble finding husbands.
“My grandmother and mother often tell me there are non-STEM jobs if I want kids,” she said.
Kato has made it this far, but many aspiring female engineers change course due to social stigma , causing a massive headache for Japan. The country faces a shortfall of 790,000 IT workers by 2030 largely due to underrepresentation of women.
Experts warn this decline in diversity threatens Japan’s innovation, productivity and competitiveness – strengths that powered its rise to 3rd largest economy last century.
“It’s wasteful and losses the nation potential,” said Yinuo Li, a Chinese educator with a PhD in molecular biology whose likeness has been used for a Barbie doll as a female role model in STEM.
“Without gender balance, your technology will have significant blindspots and deficiencies,” said the mother-of-three in Japan on a cultural exchange program.
Japan ranks last among rich nations with just 16% of female university students majoring in engineering, manufacturing and construction, and only one female scientist for every seven men. That’s despite Japanese girls scoring 2nd highest in maths and 3rd in science on OECD tests.
Japan’s gender parity ranking fell this year to a record low, overall.
The country is on a mission to close the gap. From 2024, about a dozen universities – including Kato’s Tokyo Institute of Technology – will reserve STEM spots for women, joining several that started this year.
It’s a reversal for a country where in 2018 , a Tokyo medical school admitted lowering women’s entrance scores to favor men. Officials felt women were likely to quit after having children and waste their education.
Seeking to change attitudes, the government created a 9 1/2 minute video showing adults how “unconscious bias” deters girls from STEM.
More scholarships and workshops aim to attract female talent. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries says engineer Kyoko Ida’s female perspective helped improve its bread machine, whose main users were women.
Jun-ichi Imura, Kato’s deputy university head, said lack of diversity has already cost Japan.
“We haven’t seen true innovation in decades due to insufficient diversity,” he said. “Ahead of 2050, we must act now.”
