Gender Equality in Japanese Technology Industry

Introduction

Numerous research studies have shown that gender diversity has a positive effect on team performance. For instance, Thomas Malone and Anita Wooley’s work in 2010 shows that teams with women exhibit more collective intelligence compared to all-male groups. Many technology companies and other organizations in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields have dedicated significant efforts in attracting female candidates, as an effort to alleviate the gender inequality in their organizations. Recent statistics show that some progress has been made over the years, but there is still a huge gender gap in the workforce of the technology industry. As this is a global phenomenon experienced by different countries/regions in different extents, we would like to zoom into the Asia and focus on the situation in Japan. To answer the overarching question of how to effectively reduce the level of gender inequality in STEM organizations, we need to understand what factors contribute to the status-quo, why these factors are influential in the context of Japan, and propose initiatives that would help counter these factors.

Japan’s Female Participation in STEM

According to a group of researchers from Nihon University led by Hisako Ohtsubo, the ratio of females in the country’s STEM related organizations has been slowly on the rise over the past four decades. It started off at approximately 8% in the early 1980s and reached 15.7% in 2017. The Japanese government has been rolling out Basic Plans for Science, Technology and Gender Equality every five years since 2005. More specifically, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, or MEXT, put in place programs targeting female researchers, female postdoctoral fellows and female high school students who would potentially pursue careers in STEM fields. The government’s goal is for female ratio in STEM to reach 30% by 2030.

Though the percentage of women in STEM doubled after almost 40 years, the absolute value, i.e. 15.7%, is still very low in comparison with those of other developed countries such as the United States. The latter seems to be on the healthy end of the spectrum, as women comprise 43% of the U.S. workforce for scientists and engineers under 75 years old, according to the National Science Foundation. Broadly speaking, there are three general categories of hypotheses that could explain this gender inequality, namely societal factors, psychological factors and innate explanations. Among the three, innate explanations are mentioned the least because they are highly controversial. The fundamental idea of this view is that success in STEM fields requires innate talents which women are believed to possess less compared to their male counterparts. One recent episode was the infamous memo titled Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber, written in 2017 by former Google engineer James Damore, who was fired by Google shortly after. This paper will only focus on tackling societal and psychological factors, since we believe that these are the main factors contributing to gender inequality in the workplace.

Universal Factors Causing Gender Inequality in STEM

One hypothesis for the gender gap in STEM field is discrimination. In paternal societies, prominent positions are mostly occupied by men and the story of STEM is no exception. Since most researchers and engineers are male to begin with, these organizations tend to have a selection bias towards male candidates over female candidates when it comes to hiring newcomers, even if the two candidates possess the same qualifications. The common justification is that women are likely to have children in the future and take maternity leaves from their jobs, jeopardizing the company performance and their own career development. Witnessing the prevailing discrimination, many female candidates are discouraged and less likely to apply to jobs in the STEM fields in the first place.

In addition, social stereotyping plays a critical role as well. When people think of working in the technology industries, they usually envision a group of poorly groomed, nerdy males with glasses in a mildly ill-maintained work environment. On the other hand, women are more likely associated with traditional professions in more female-friendly workplaces. For example, in her work on “Ambient Belonging” in 2009 and 2011, Sapna Guryan illustrated  that people typically perceive IT engineering office as “messy and unwelcoming”  which in turn lowers women’s willingness to work in such environments.

Moreover, evidence suggests that there is a lack of interest among women to enter the STEM fields. This could be the culmination of the social and psychological forces that make this path unattractive to many women. In the meantime, the lack of female role models with inspiring success stories in STEM could be another reason why women prefer other career paths instead.

Unique Factors Pertaining to Japan

On top of the universal factors, Japan’s unique culture is critical for us to understand the discrepancy in the female participation rates in STEM fields between Japan and the United States. First of all, Japan has a highly masculine culture which emphasizes different gender roles in society. A woman is seen as the primary caregiver in a family in most societies and it is even more so in Japan. It used to be a social norm for a woman to leave the workforce and become a full-time housewife after getting married. Even today in Japan, about 1 in 3 married women is not employed.

This leads to another element of the Japanese culture – high level of collectivism. In general, people are expected to place collective interests above individual interests. In the context of a common household, the wife is thus more likely to sacrifice her own career prospects for the welfare of the entire family. These two elements combined pose a tremendous hindrance for women who may consider pursuing careers in STEM fields. Making the situation even worse, Japan’s mainstream work culture is famous for long working hours and overtime. Often, bearing in mind that they are expected to fulfill their family obligations after marriage, qualified female candidates would pass on potential careers in STEM for more traditional, less demanding jobs that can give them better flexibility.

Last but not least, Japanese culture shows high level of tightness. In other words, social norms are usually expressed unambiguously, and violations of social norms are seldom tolerated. The cultural tightness makes it even harder for individuals to challenge the pervasive social norms, such as gender-role expectations and putting collective interests above individual interests. Without effectively influencing the cultural perceptions of working women/mothers and having strategies that address the root of the problem, the gender gap in Japan’s STEM industries will narrow at a slow pace and may not eventually converge to the same level as the United States.

Proposed business model innovation

Since gender inequality is a deeply rooted social issue in Japan, it requires not only the high prioritization from government, but also long term investment from an international company with stellar reputation and strong influence in the industry. As a global innovative technology company who has the best reputation for Corporate Social Responsibility, we believe that Google should take the mantle to lead our proposed initiatives on reducing gender inequality in Japanese STEM industry.

From the demand point of view (includes not only young girls, but also their parents), priority is to break the social stereotypes that women do not belong in technology related fields. The goal is to project the idea that independent and talented females could also live a happy life without sacrificing their own interests, and females who are interested in STEM industry could achieve the same, or even better achievements than men by leveraging their unique creativity and differentiated technical skills.

In terms of the supply side, equal opportunities that cater to the needs of both men and female are necessary to decrease gender inequality in STEM industry. Google should not only focus in the education system for those young students, but also invest in the social activities which provide equal opportunities and attractive proposition for girls to shape their core, instead of being forced to choose what the society and others expected them to. Although these societal and psychological issues seem impossible to resolve, Google could still cooperate with Japanese government, schools and other local brands to change their deep-seated beliefs together.

Below are the various business models proposed as short-term, mid-term and long-term solutions, targeting Japanese girls ranging from 5 to 20 years old.

• Long-term solution: Build female-friendly toys or offline theme park experience that could inspire young girls about high technology

Aside from the masculine culture, Japan is also well-known for their pop culture including manga, cosplay, video games etc. Pop culture has a significant influence on Japanese, which could reflect their mainstream of mindset. Children started to explore and discover their interests at an early age, especially in these areas since there are many choices offered by companies. But surprisingly, majority of these products emphasizing on creativity are targeting boys, whereas girls only have choices in dressing their Barbies as princesses or cute and pink Hello Kitty.

A deep-seated stereotype behind this business logic is the biased belief that girls are only interested in beautiful superficial toys, while boys are more innate with creativity and constructive capability. However, girls deserve to have the equal rights in terms of choosing their interests. Therefore, Google could design innovative toys targeting 5 to 10 years old girls, in the aim of activating girls’ creative potential and constructive capability which are essential to succeed in STEM industry.

In addition, Google could build up a Toys World as an offline experience center by implementing interactive activities with high technology. Through partnerships with Japanese pop culture brands or ToysRus, innovative toys combining the girlish design and intellectual functions will be created to inspire girls’ interest in tech related fields. Parents especially young mothers are also encouraged to be involved in the interactions so that they could discover and experience the charm of technology together with their children.

• Mid-term solution: Provide basic technical skills education for teenagers

After capturing girls’ attention at an early stage by planting the seeds of inspiration about technology, Google should open an online platform for passionate teenagers (from 10 to 15 years old) to provide familiarity about technology fields and partner with schools to deliver these courses.

Special curriculum could be customized based on each girl’s passion and entry level skills. Free courses are offered at first stage for basic courses, those who demonstrate strong perseverance and great performance in basic courses could unlock advanced courses. For example, if a student has studied online for seven days in row and obtained a top 10% grade in the final test of the basic course, she could receive free access to exclusive advanced courses. In addition, the UI design of the platform itself and the content should also be designed so that it could be attractive and relevant for young girls.

• Short -term solution: Reformulate Google’s hiring process to create awareness for female students earlier

 We propose Google to resequence their whole hiring process. Instead of only organizing massive recruitment activities in universities, Google should start earlier and organize recruitment activities in high school to identify high potential female candidates. The purpose of this is not only to identify high caliber candidates earlier, but also to pique interest of female high school students to pursue STEM-related majors in undergraduate.

 The high potential candidates identified by Google in this activity will be accepted as “Google Female Scholar”. The test results that we obtained from Google online education platform could be provided as a reference in selected female students who exceled in STEM related subjects. Each Google Female Scholar will receive full scholarships for their university tuition in STEM majors (half of the scholarship by Google and the other half contributed by government), and they will also guaranteed employment at Google after completion of their Bachelor Degree.

Another reason why female talents don’t have enough courage to step into STEM industry is because they can’t imagine themselves to be engineers or computer scientists. A striking quote from a documentary film Miss Representation : “You Can’t Be What You Can’t See” outlines the importance of having a role model who overcame the challenges, opted a career path where men are dominant, and became an expert in their fields.

To connect more role models with existing female students, Google could liaise young talents with female role models in their company. By organizing regular panels and workshops in high schools or universities, these role models could inspire the next generation with their own experiences so that they could have someone to look up to.  In addition, all the Google Female Scholars will also become Google’s ambassador in their universities to promote Google and build up a community to enhance the culture for female students interested in STEM industry.

Financial vs Social Impact

While it is true that implementing these initiatives would incur certain costs from Google, in the long run it will also provide economic benefit for both the company and the nation (Japan) as a whole.

The lack of women talents in tech, compounded with the declining population, has resulted in severe drought of talent in Japanese tech industry. For example, even domestic tech giants like Rakuten or Line have indicated that 60 to 80% of their incoming engineering talents will be foreigners. Naturally, hiring foreigners will be more expensive because the firms typically have to incur costs on Japanese language training, accommodation allowance, moving allowances, etc. (in our estimate, they add up to more than double the cost of hiring local talents).

If Google are able to bring more female talents in the pipeline, it will help in reducing the necessity to import foreign talents, which should lead to decrease in overhead costs. In our estimate, decreasing the percentage of foreign employees in Google’s Japan office from 70% to 40% will lead to $1.75mil of annual cost savings.

Aside from the financial benefit, these initiatives will also bring social impacts by bridging gaps in gender equality and ensuring sustainable streams of local talents in Japanese technology industry. We hope that these initiatives will empower female students and give them the same opportunity as male students to thrive in STEM industry. Not only that, the injection of gender diversity shall also bring diversity of thoughts and ideas in the STEM fields, benefitting both the company and the industry as a whole.

When female role models in tech industry, Google Female Scholars, and Toy’s World gain more public attention, this will eventually lead to ripple effect, influencing many more young females to pursue interests in technology. Eventually, it will reach an ideal state when Google do not need to spend money on gender equality initiatives, because at that time female students will be just as incentivized as male students to engage in technology sector. Hence, these initiatives will just be a launchpad to create the network effects necessary to form positive feedback loop in influencing female students.

Challenges and Risks

The biggest challenge in bridging the gender equality gap is the extremely strong patriarch culture in Japanese society, acting as societal and psychological barriers for female workers in tech. In addition, most of our proposed initiatives are naturally long-term programs, which means Google may not be able to see any significant impact in the short-medium term. It remains to be seen whether key decision makers within Google will be committed to maintaining the program even when no clear results are evident several years down the road.

To mitigate these issues, we believe that Google should not be the only player in the industry who are championing gender equality. They should partner with government or other tech firms to promote equal opportunity in this sector. This partnership will not only alleviate Google’s financial burden in launching the activities (e.g. scholarship fund support from the government), but it should also accelerate the creation of the ripple effect necessary for mass penetration of female interests.

We believe that Google’s stellar reputation and strong influence shall be advantageous in forming close co-operation in the industry. By tearing down the existing social stigma, hopefully it will bring equal opportunities for women, ensure domestic workforce sustainability, and increase collective intelligence in the Japanese technology industry.

Authors: Keane Nguyen, Rymax, Shaofang Liang, Songsong Zhao