Positive discrimination
Solution to gender inequalities in employment
620198H Keito Takano
Introduction
Around the world, it cannot be said that equality in society has been fully achieved. There are various inequalities, but gender inequality is one of the largest problems. A lot of attempts to correct inequality have been done, but positive discrimination is one of the most effective means. Positive discrimination is the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups which suffer discrimination. In this essay, I will focus especially on employment in Japan. Liu and Heger (2001) said it is difficult to change the present situation because the old custom in which men gain an advantage over women has a firm hold in Japan. However, …show more content…
The origin of CEDAW goes back to a resolution, which 22 countries introduced at the 18th UN General Assembly calling for a declaration eliminating discrimination against women in 1963. The resolution noted that discrimination against women still existed “in fact if not in law”. On November 7 in 1967, the United Nations General Assembly adopted such a declaration. In turn, the declaration became the basis on which to draft the CEDAW Convention. Japan signed this CEDAW in 1980, formally ratified it in 1985 and took the first step to eliminate the gender gap. Based on CEDAW, Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) was enacted in 1985 (enforced in 1986). It aims to eliminate discrimination between men and women in the field of employment and to resolve the disparity and it was a breakthrough in Japanese law at that time. However, the first EEOL was intended to treat males and females equally, and it was inadequate without obligation to eliminate discrimination, such as clear texts and penalties prohibiting discrimination. For this reason, EEOL was revised in 1997 (became effective in 1999), clearly prohibiting unequal …show more content…
It says there are advantages such as improving labor motivation for women workers, improving productivity through energetic activity and stimulus by women, continuing employment of female workers, creating new value with diverse human resources, securing a wide range of high quality workforce, improvement of external evaluation (company image). In addition, companies with advanced positive discriminations are more likely to have better corporate management results and sales. According to the 2003 survey on the relationship between women's utilization of companies and management performance by 21st Century Occupation Foundation, the sales index with the sales five years ago as 100 is 83.5 for the female managerial position ratio "significantly decreased" compared to 5 years ago, 93.1 for the "slightly decreased", 102.6 for "Maintaining the status quo" , 110.9 for "Somewhat increased" , 173.7 for "Significantly increased" (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 2003). As the number of female appointments increased, the performance has
Solution to gender inequalities in employment
620198H Keito Takano
Introduction
Around the world, it cannot be said that equality in society has been fully achieved. There are various inequalities, but gender inequality is one of the largest problems. A lot of attempts to correct inequality have been done, but positive discrimination is one of the most effective means. Positive discrimination is the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups which suffer discrimination. In this essay, I will focus especially on employment in Japan. Liu and Heger (2001) said it is difficult to change the present situation because the old custom in which men gain an advantage over women has a firm hold in Japan. However, …show more content…
The origin of CEDAW goes back to a resolution, which 22 countries introduced at the 18th UN General Assembly calling for a declaration eliminating discrimination against women in 1963. The resolution noted that discrimination against women still existed “in fact if not in law”. On November 7 in 1967, the United Nations General Assembly adopted such a declaration. In turn, the declaration became the basis on which to draft the CEDAW Convention. Japan signed this CEDAW in 1980, formally ratified it in 1985 and took the first step to eliminate the gender gap. Based on CEDAW, Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) was enacted in 1985 (enforced in 1986). It aims to eliminate discrimination between men and women in the field of employment and to resolve the disparity and it was a breakthrough in Japanese law at that time. However, the first EEOL was intended to treat males and females equally, and it was inadequate without obligation to eliminate discrimination, such as clear texts and penalties prohibiting discrimination. For this reason, EEOL was revised in 1997 (became effective in 1999), clearly prohibiting unequal …show more content…
It says there are advantages such as improving labor motivation for women workers, improving productivity through energetic activity and stimulus by women, continuing employment of female workers, creating new value with diverse human resources, securing a wide range of high quality workforce, improvement of external evaluation (company image). In addition, companies with advanced positive discriminations are more likely to have better corporate management results and sales. According to the 2003 survey on the relationship between women's utilization of companies and management performance by 21st Century Occupation Foundation, the sales index with the sales five years ago as 100 is 83.5 for the female managerial position ratio "significantly decreased" compared to 5 years ago, 93.1 for the "slightly decreased", 102.6 for "Maintaining the status quo" , 110.9 for "Somewhat increased" , 173.7 for "Significantly increased" (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 2003). As the number of female appointments increased, the performance has