Gender equality is still a hard goal for Japan to achieve



Nowadays, it is often said that the number of women who work outside has been increasing every year. However, Japan is still lagging behind other developed countries in women’s social advancement. Promotion for women at a company, for example, is much more difficult than men in Japan. In my opinion, women receive such an unfair treatment due to Japanese old tradition.

Firstly, many people in Japan still think women should stay home and do their housework and take care of children after they got married. As a result of such a way Japanese think, women are thought to quit a job after they got married so they cannot get promotion.

Secondly, even if women continue to work after marriage, it is hard to combine childcare and their job in Japan. The reason is that most of Japanese men do not help housework or childcare after they get home. According to statistics, compared to United States where 40 percent of men help housework, only 10 percent of men do in Japan. Therefore, Japanese women cannot concentrate on their job and it is difficult to work fulltime. Thus, besides the old way of thinking, lack of help by men at home is also one of the reasons why women cannot move up to managerial positions in Japan.

In conclusion, Japanese old tradition, for example women should quit their job and stay at home after marriage or men should not get into the kitchen, is what makes women’s social advancement difficult. Unless Japanese change such an old way of thinking, gender equality cannot be achieved.