著者

小川 眞里子 横山 美和 河野 銀子 財部 香枝 大坪 久子 OGAWA Mariko YOKOYAMA Miwa KAWANO Ginko TAKARABE Kae OHTSUBO Hisako

出版者

人文論叢 : 三重大学人文学部文化学科研究紀要

雑誌

人文論叢 : 三重大学人文学部文化学科研究紀要 (ISSN:02897253)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, pp.15-28, 2015-03-30

著者

小川 眞里子 OGAWA Mariko

出版者

三重大学人文学部文化学科

雑誌

人文論叢 = Bulletin of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,Department of Humanities (ISSN:02897253)

巻号頁・発行日

no.31, pp.47-59, 2014

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今やノーベル賞量産国とまで言われる日本で、なにゆえこれほどまでに科学や工学の女性研究者が少ないのか。まずは学部学生の現状について概観し、次に理工系研究者の重要な人材プールである博士課程修了者について見る。これによれば次世代を担う人材はけっして十分に育ちつつある状況ではない。研究者については、まずわが国には性別の十分な統計資料が整備されておらず、これが大きな問題である。そもそもの問題の所在、原因を考える上で、あるいは他国と比較する上で統計の不備は大きな障害である。そして女性研究者支援のプログラムを実施することもきることながら、女性の活躍を保証する法的整備が重要であろう。Over the past several years, Japan has become the most productive country for Nobel Prizes after the US. However, all Japanese Laureates are male. We may rightly say that Japan is successful in producing male laureates. Why have there been no female laureates in Japan? It is now known world-wide that the percentage of female researchers in Japan is very small, almost the smallest among its peers, even though Japan is a democratic country with a national commitment to science and technology. To increase the number of female researchers, the number of female PhD graduates provides the human resources available for female researchers. But She Figures 2012 data showed that compared to all EU countries Japan is ranked lowest but one. The lowest is Malta and lowest but two is Cyprus. According to the details for these lowest three countries, the number of female PhD graduates is 3 in Malta, 4508 in Japan, and 11 in Cyprus. The low female percentage in Japan is shockingly behind the times. In addition to the low proportion of female PhD graduates, a quarter of these are foreign students. In fact, not a few post-doctoral students eventually return to their own countries. Increasing the number of native female PhD graduates is an urgent necessity for Japan. The next problem for human resources is Japanese researchers' social consciousness. The rate of dual-income to single-income households is now about 1.2. However, it is totally different in the academic sphere. Data on the jobs of researchers' spouses show that more than half of male researchers have full-time housewives. MEXT's efforts are not effective in such a conservative environment. If MEXT is to increase the number of female researchers, not only is a support system relying on male colleagues' cooperation required, but also legal action, such as a quota system, should be taken. In the US and EU, there are a lot of dual-career academic couples and they are a driving force for solving female researchers' problems. In Japan a few PhD female students plus the traditional tendency of male researchers with full-time housewives hampers the increase of dual-career academic couples. It is a shortcut to build a gender equal society to raise talented female researchers with the potential to win the Nobel Prize.