Faculty and Staff Development & Implementation of Awareness Raising Seminar
On September 27, 2022, we welcomed Professor Hideya Kitamura from Toyo University and held an awareness raising seminar for deans, directors and managers. The Office for Gender Equality has been delivering talks on unconscious bias at faculty meetings. In AY2022, faculty and staff development seminars were held at the Graduate School of Medicine, Graduate School of Science, Institute for Solid State Physics, and Institute of Medical Science (Project Associate Professor Mariko Ogawa, Deputy Director of the Office for Gender Equality was the speaker at all four seminars). The seminars focused on realizing one’s own preconceptions, drawing on case examples of gender bias, discrimination based on good intentions, stereotype threats, and microaggressions. The talk was about ways to change one’s behavior by raising awareness on both the conscious and unconscious levels and also about the initiatives promoted by the University of Tokyo, including diversity education programs and the D&I awareness project.
Events for Female Junior and High-school Students
On October 16, 2022, we held “The University of Tokyo information session for female high school students – Let’s interact with real and future University of Tokyo students!” and President Fujii delivered messages to the female students.
The Office for Gender Equality also carried out activities to support female students, particularly those who aspire to study in the STEM fields based on annual donations by Johnson & Johnson K.K. (hereafter J&J). In AY2022, the donations from J&J were used to hold events for female junior and high-school students at the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture, and Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as the Institute of Industrial Science, various institutes on the Kashiwa Campus as well as the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.
In the humanities fields, a “Diversity & Inclusion event” and a “group consultation for female junior and high-school students” were held at the College of Arts and Sciences and Faculty of Law respectively, with support from the Office for Gender Equality.
The Office for Gender Equality also carried out activities to support female students, particularly those who aspire to study in the STEM fields based on annual donations by Johnson & Johnson K.K. (hereafter J&J). In AY2022, the donations from J&J were used to hold events for female junior and high-school students at the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Medicine, Agriculture, and Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as the Institute of Industrial Science, various institutes on the Kashiwa Campus as well as the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.
In the humanities fields, a “Diversity & Inclusion event” and a “group consultation for female junior and high-school students” were held at the College of Arts and Sciences and Faculty of Law respectively, with support from the Office for Gender Equality.
UTokyo Women⁺ Student Networking Event
The Next Generation Development Task Force of the Office for Gender Equality launched a new in-person event called “UTokyo Women⁺ - Let’s Create a Student Network!” with the aim of providing a forum for networking of current students.
In the event held on June 29, 2022, following a self-introduction by the participants, the conversation grew animated when talking about “things about UTokyo that I found to be exactly as I imagined”. During the theme-based discussions, many students expressed their wish to exchange information about which field to major in and earning the necessary credits. The event seemed to have provided a good chance for friendly exchanges.
In November, five casual networking events were held on the Komaba and Hongo Campuses. Some participants casually dropped by after seeing a notice of the event on the campus bulletin boards, while some others repeatedly joined in on multiple sessions. It was an interesting opportunity for exchange, with communications undertaken in English and Chinese as well as Japanese, because there were international students among the participants.
In the event held on June 29, 2022, following a self-introduction by the participants, the conversation grew animated when talking about “things about UTokyo that I found to be exactly as I imagined”. During the theme-based discussions, many students expressed their wish to exchange information about which field to major in and earning the necessary credits. The event seemed to have provided a good chance for friendly exchanges.
In November, five casual networking events were held on the Komaba and Hongo Campuses. Some participants casually dropped by after seeing a notice of the event on the campus bulletin boards, while some others repeatedly joined in on multiple sessions. It was an interesting opportunity for exchange, with communications undertaken in English and Chinese as well as Japanese, because there were international students among the participants.
IARU Gender Group Meeting
The IARU Gender Group Meeting (Women and Men in Globalizing Universities) was held at the University of Copenhagen on August 22-24, 2022, with a total of 10 out of the 11 member universities participated in the meeting. Professor Takane Ito, Vice President, and Project Associate Professor Mariko Ogawa, Deputy Director of the Office for Gender Equality represented the University of Tokyo in the meeting, where views were exchanged on the current and future issues regarding equity, diversity and inclusion.
Research Trip to Singapore
Project Researcher Madoka Nakano visited Singapore on a survey trip in January 2023. Two universities in Singapore are consistently ranked among the global top in the World University Rankings: the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Despite their Asian cultural background, similar to that of Japan, the gender ratio of their students is roughly 50:50. Individual interviews of seven university officials and people concerned were conducted. While there are no explicit rules on gender ratio at NUS, in order to increase female faculty members, there is a common understanding to make best effort to include females among the candidates as well as interviewers. NTU actively offers mentoring programs to stimulate female students’ interest in pursuing STEM fields and announces related survey results.
Academic Frontier Lecture Series: “Discussing Gender Inequality”
This was the first omnibus lecture series on gender organized by the Office for Gender Equality. It was offered as an autumn semester course targeted at first- and second-year students in the College of Arts and Sciences and approximately 20 students enrolled in the course.
Faculty members from various graduate schools and institutes gave lectures on topics related to gender inequality from the perspective of various fields of specialization. Active discussion took place following the group presentations on themes chosen from the lectures.
Faculty members from various graduate schools and institutes gave lectures on topics related to gender inequality from the perspective of various fields of specialization. Active discussion took place following the group presentations on themes chosen from the lectures.
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith of Cambridge University visited UTokyo
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, Vice President (Research) of Cambridge University visited UTokyo on January 25, 2023. Opinions were exchanged on gender equality, diversity initiatives, and global education at both universities. President Ferguson-Smith talked about the Unconscious Bias training program and efforts to increase the number of female researchers at Cambridge University.
Five-year plan to accelerate the increase in female faculty members
In advance of the #WeChange Initiative, each graduate school/institute in the University of Tokyo has been formulating the “Five-year plan to accelerate the increase in female faculty members” since AY2022. In this initiative, each faculty/graduate school, institute, and research center of the University formulates and submits a plan that sets a numerical target for increasing the ratio of female faculty members by AY2027 and lays out measures to achieve that target under the four categories of recruitment, personnel system, work environment, and next generation development.
A form was distributed to each faculty/graduate school and institute as a template for drawing up the plan, with a list of options that could be chosen from or adapted as necessary. The options include not only measures that would directly lead to an increase of female faculty such as open recruitment limited to female researchers and workstyle reform, but also measures that may not directly lead to an increase of female faculty. For example, conducting training programs to raise awareness of unconscious bias as a measure to improve work environment and including female speakers at events and conferences. This is because we believe that changing the mindset of all members of the University to create an environment comfortable for everyone is most important for increasing the ratio of female faculty members.
Opinion exchange meetings have been held several times a year, bringing together faculty/graduate school and institute leadership members at the vice dean/director level to discuss the five-year plan and to ensure that information is shared with the University administration as well as between different the faculties/graduate schools and institutes. These meetings have greatly contributed to raising awareness of the faculty/graduate schol and institute leadership by sharing best practices on the implementation of various measures and by stimulating and learning from each other.
Even if the departmental targets set in the plans submitted in AY2023 by faculties/graduate schools and institutes are all fully achieved, these will not add up to our UTokyo Compass goal of 25%. However, as already discussed in the #WeChange section, by setting out various measures we can expect an upward shift in the departmental targets. The five-year plan and the opinion exchange meetings serve an important role in linking the initiatives led by the University administration (as represented by #WeChange) and efforts made by respective faculties/graduate schools and institutes which have the authority over personnel appointment.
A form was distributed to each faculty/graduate school and institute as a template for drawing up the plan, with a list of options that could be chosen from or adapted as necessary. The options include not only measures that would directly lead to an increase of female faculty such as open recruitment limited to female researchers and workstyle reform, but also measures that may not directly lead to an increase of female faculty. For example, conducting training programs to raise awareness of unconscious bias as a measure to improve work environment and including female speakers at events and conferences. This is because we believe that changing the mindset of all members of the University to create an environment comfortable for everyone is most important for increasing the ratio of female faculty members.
Opinion exchange meetings have been held several times a year, bringing together faculty/graduate school and institute leadership members at the vice dean/director level to discuss the five-year plan and to ensure that information is shared with the University administration as well as between different the faculties/graduate schools and institutes. These meetings have greatly contributed to raising awareness of the faculty/graduate schol and institute leadership by sharing best practices on the implementation of various measures and by stimulating and learning from each other.
Even if the departmental targets set in the plans submitted in AY2023 by faculties/graduate schools and institutes are all fully achieved, these will not add up to our UTokyo Compass goal of 25%. However, as already discussed in the #WeChange section, by setting out various measures we can expect an upward shift in the departmental targets. The five-year plan and the opinion exchange meetings serve an important role in linking the initiatives led by the University administration (as represented by #WeChange) and efforts made by respective faculties/graduate schools and institutes which have the authority over personnel appointment.
Best practices of measures proposed for building the foundation for increasing female faculty.
- When recruiting faculty members, invite candidates to share in writing their personal circumstances related to life events such as childbirth and elderly care for consideration in the selection process.
- Avoid concentration of workload (e.g. various committee membership) on female faculty members or build an environment where they can feel free to complain about concentration of workload.
- When assessing faculty performance, take into consideration delay in professional activities due to life events.
- When recruiting faculty members, invite candidates to share in writing their personal circumstances related to life events such as childbirth and elderly care for consideration in the selection process.
- Avoid concentration of workload (e.g. various committee membership) on female faculty members or build an environment where they can feel free to complain about concentration of workload.
- When assessing faculty performance, take into consideration delay in professional activities due to life events.
