"Womenomics" in Japan

I'm taking a sociology class at Pomona this semester called Population & the Environment. For our final projects, one student presented on Japan's aging population, and brought up the idea of increasing the number of women in the Japanese workforce.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe set a goal that 30% of the top executive positions in the country would be held by women by 2020—the program was called "Womenomics." Last year, however, his administration had to lower the percentage target to 7%, because it just wasn't working.

Many attribute this failure to the fact that women's and men's social roles are still resolutely held in Japan, and women are expected to stay at home with children. However, I looked into it a little more, and this doesn't seem to be entirely true—I found another article showing that women's (15-64) participation in the workforce in Japan is greater than that of the United States.

The corporate world in Japan is not just a boys' club - it's an old men's club. In my opinion, there might just be a prejudice that young people can't achieve positions of executive management—let alone women getting up at the top, which might be unheard of, given the existence of "salarymen" as such a defining job term.

I think it's interesting to see how a governmental action could affect decisions in the private sector. I'm not too sure yet what the consequences or incentives are for achieving Abe's goal, but I don't think anything like this would ever happen in the US. If it did, do you guys think it would work? 

The Forum: Women at CMC over the Years

Hi all,

I just wanted to share a brief article on the CMC newspaper-the Forum. The article is written by a senior ant its titled "Woman at CMC Over the Years"  .

In this article, she traces what its like being a women at CMC and how there is always so much pressure to be attractive, popular and successful on both men and women at our school.

One interesting thing she talks about how even in 1959, CMC was portrayed in media, such as Harper's Magazine that CMC's student body consists of"exuberantly extroverted, tireless cheerleaders of fun, and, in their own self-image, mad bad playboys".

Thus, after examining quotes, such as these, she begins discussing how at times, it has been difficult navigating CMC as a women and truly understanding her identity here at CMC. She also cites an interesting, discussion with an administrator at CMC, who mentioned that in order to succeed at CMC, a women has to be "tough and hot".

I think that a lot of the points discussed in the article, resonate with similar issues we discussed in class in When Everything Changed by Gail Collins. I hope this article is interesting as well for everyone, it was great food for thought for me. 

sexism, racism, and different health outcomes

Hello all,

In this week's reading, Sheryl Sandberg explains, "Men and women also differ when it comes to explaining failure. When a man fails, he points to factors like 'didn't study enough' or 'not interested in the subject matter.' When a woman fails, she is more likely to believe it is due to an inherent lack of ability." (30)

This quote reminded me of a speech I heard at a community health workshop in Jamaica Plain, Boston. It's a speech I try to repeat whenever possible. Essentially it goes as follows.

1) Women and racial minorities are more likely to take their failures personally--attributing them to inherent shortcomings or lack of effort. They also may perceive that they have experienced bias or discrimination.
2) These factors lead to chronic stress. Minority women are constantly wondering if a failure was due to their own personal failure or to an unfair system. They still cannot imagine that it was just the luck of the draw (as other non-minority men might feel) and had nothing to do with them. Especially in the face of discrimination, whether blatant or just suspected, stress levels spike.
3) Chronic stress over a lifetime leads to concrete health disparities--risk of heart disease, weight problems, risk of getting cancer, issues conceiving and bearing children, and life expectancy.

I may dramatize the point a bit when I stress, "if at all possible, let some of your failures just go. Lingering on them too long is literally killing you." Still, I think the idea holds. Here are some studies I've found on the topic.

Cortisol and Cardiac Reactivity in the Context of Sex Discrimination: The Moderating Effects of Mood and Perceived Control : http://www.bentham-open.com/contents/pdf/TOPSYJ/TOPSYJ-1-1.pdf

From “In the Air” to “Under the Skin”: Cortisol Responses to Social Identity Threat: http://wendyberrymendes.com/cms/uploads/Townsend,%20Gangi,%20Major%20and%20Mendes,%202011.pdf

Associations Between Self-Reported Discrimination and Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms Among Young Adults: The Moderating Role of Racial-Ethnic Minority Status: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254319/#R34

Health Disparities and Stress: https://www.apa.org/topics/health-disparities/stress.pdf

Discrimination and racial disparities in health: evidence and needed research: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821669/

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms in Preadolescents: The Role of Parental Psychosocial Risk and Monitoring: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419379/

Stress-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Women: Effects of Race and Pregnancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788648/

NY Times Article Discusses What Hillary's Campaign and Concession Speech Mean for Women Everywhere

I actually came across this article right after the election and thought it was a really interesting discussion of the outcome. I particularly found it interesting that she discussed how Clinton played by the rules. That seems to be a big problem for women in positions of power, that they feel they have to play by the rules in order to maintain their status and look like they are not causing any trouble. I really liked that they took the quote from Clinton's childhood friend and unpacked it, because, at least for me, I was troubled by the quote at first, but with more discussion, she was right and in addition, the quote and discussion of it show how belittled women are even when they are in positions of power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/opinion/girls-can-be-anything-just-not-president.html?_r=0

A new kind of tampon advertisement

http://www.upworthy.com/yes-theres-blood-in-this-tampon-commercial-and-yes-its-awesome?c=ufb2

This tampon ad is awesome! I think that putting ads like this on tv would seriously change the way we publicly talk about the female period!

Free Tampons New York

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-city-mayor-bill-de-blasio-signs-tampons-free-law_us_5787bc57e4b08608d3336b27

I came across this article while doing research for another class and it really surprised me that I had not considered this debate before: why are feminine hygiene products not something that we see in every bathroom just as we see toilet paper or hand soap?

Gail Collins on the recount

Hi everyone! Just wanted to share this new article by Gail Collins, explaining her thoughts on the Green Party/Jill Stein-led recount, filled with her trademark humor and insightful political commentary (a great mix of 70% humor, 30% political commentary).

Here's my favorite, the ending to the article:

I’m bringing that up just so I can note that John Quincy Adams is the only person besides Rutherford B. Hayes who won the presidency with a worse negative percentage of the popular vote than Donald Trump. Big loser! Sad!

O.K., done ranting. For today.