A government paper published on Tuesday said that women make up 11% of lower house members and 1% of corporate leaders. While figures from various media sources vary, it seems clear that Japan has a very low percentage of women in positions of power. Foreign critics, predictably, seem to have no solutions to propose, but only criticism of Japan to put forth. The Straits Times said this: ”Japan is behind the international standard in terms of female presence in the political sector,” the paper said, suggesting that the country introduce quotas like Sweden, Germany and South Korea have done in the past.
So why cant a woman be more like a man? In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men are and females are filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth. In 1950 only one-third of American women of working age had a paid job. Today two-thirds do, and women make up almost half of America's workforce. Since 1950 men's employment rate has slid by 12 percentage points, to 77%. In fact, almost everywhere more women are employed and the percentage of men with jobs has fallen—although in some countries the feminization of the workplace still has far to go: in Italy and Japan, women's share of jobs is still 40% or less.
The increase in female employment in developed countries has been aided by a big shift in the type of jobs on offer. Manufacturing work, traditionally a male preserve, has declined, while jobs in services have expanded. This has reduced the demand for manual labor and put the sexes on a more equal footing.
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