Gender Gap / The Truth Lying Between What Is Said and What Is Left Unsaid

Have you ever realized that you didn't actually know something well when you stopped to think about it? Information reaches us from various angles. If we accept it all without question, minor misunderstandings can occur.

The "empowerment of women" is one such example. It has been five years since the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace. Before we knew it, working women and working moms became very visible, and it feels like Japan has changed, but something still feels off. The housewives around me are still only working part-time. Am I the only one bothered by this?

Different information seems the same

Even in the midst of this crisis, this country is a society with a declining birthrate and an aging population. The labor shortage is inevitably serious. That is why the spotlight is on "women."

If so, has the working environment for women been improved? Not really. The Gender Gap Index for Japan published in 2019 ranked 121st out of 153 countries. This country already has the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, the Child Care and Family Care Leave Law, and the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children, yet the gender gap remains wide.

However, since 2012, the number of employed women has increased by 3.3 million, the ratio of women in management positions in private companies has risen, and we hear stories that women have already entered the workforce and Japan has changed*.

Yes, information pointing in different directions reaches us at the same speed, which is why it becomes confusing. Are women able to play an active role... or are they not?

*Nihon Keizai Shimbun, June 29, 2020, "Benefits for Men and Organizations"

Has everyone changed already?

With that in mind, when we check the progress of "women's empowerment" from a macro perspective, the current labor force population of this country (Labor Force Survey 2020*) is 63.65 million, including both men and women. Among them, 56.05 million are "employees." Yes, this country is still a salaryman society!

Lately, young entrepreneurs are driving the new era on TV and the internet, and don't you assume that "ways of working" have changed? But in reality, nearly 90% of people working in this country are still employees. Yes, this country is still a salaryman society!

*Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Labor Force Survey, Population 15 years and older by employment status, number of employed persons by industry, and number of unemployed persons

And what is concerning is the salary of employees. According to the Labor Force Survey (2020)*, if men's salary is 100, the salary for women is

1976 was 58.8

1989 was 60.2

2019 was 74.2

Over the course of about half a century, the wage gap between men and women has narrowed considerably, but even in 2019, for every 1 million yen a man earned, a woman earned only 740,000 yen. This is the visible gap.

* Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Statistics Bureau, Labour Force Survey, Basic Survey on Wage Structure

The gap created by employment status

But why does this wage gap exist? Of course, this is a salaryman society, and there are differences in employment. According to the Labour Force Survey (2020)*, the working styles of employees are:

Men and women working as regular employees: 63.5%
Men and women working as non-regular employees: 36.5%

This is how it breaks down by gender:

Men working as regular employees: 65.9%
Women working as regular employees: 34.1%

Are you not surprised by the low percentage of women in regular employment? Furthermore,

Men working as non-regular employees: 32.3%
Women working as non-regular employees: 67.7%

The gender ratio for regular and non-regular employment is completely reversed.

The gender gap within non-regular employment

And as for the content of non-regular employment*,

Men working part-time: 5.9%
Women working part-time: 42.4%

Men working as part-timers (arubaito): 10.6%
Women working as part-timers (arubaito): 10.4%

Men working as temporary agency workers: 2.8%
Women working as temporary agency workers: 4.1%

Non-regular workers are overwhelmingly women. Moreover, the high ratio of female part-timers is somewhat abnormal. Yes, this is the reason why there are only part-timers around me.

It is said that the number of employed women has increased by 3.3 million since 2012, and this is often cited as a symbol of women's empowerment, but when you look under the hood, this is what it looks like. Therefore, the fact that the number of working women is increasing rapidly means that the ranks of women working in non-regular positions are growing. The society we live in is that kind of society.

* Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Statistics Bureau, Labour Force Survey: Population 15 years and older by employment status, number of employed persons by industry, and number of unemployed persons.

Summary

In this age of information overload, there are times when it becomes hard to tell what is true. Yes, you need to be careful when receiving information flowing from the media. If you receive information that is inconsistent with the reality around you, please do not ignore it. Because that sense of discomfort is the shortcut to reaching the hidden truth.

There are no lies at first glance in either the truth that is being broadcast or the truth that is not. However, if you skillfully use these two—the truth that is brought to the surface and the truth that is not—the recipient will see a completely different world.

Even now, the majority of this country are salarymen, there is a wage gap between men and women, and women working in regular positions account for less than 40%. That is the truth. The base supporting companies is overflowing with non-regular workers, and there is no way we should be happy about that by saying, 'It's good that more people are working.'

Therefore, I think those of us who have been pushed to the base must think about it. About equality of opportunity. Because no one else will think about it for us.

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