Increasing the number of women in engineering at universities and colleges in Japan

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a survey into the number of female engineering students, professors, and professional workers in Japan. The survey reveals that the relative proportion of females in the engineering field is remarkably low. Recent efforts to improve the situation are reviewed, but such attempts appear to be dismayingly half-hearted, and it is as of yet impossible to judge if these solutions will actually have any significant effect on increasing the number of women in the engineering field in Japan. Introduction The Japanese Society for Engineering Education (JSEE) is an organization with a membership of 216 educational institutions (universities and colleges) and 98 leading corporations and has been contributing to the improvement of engineering education since 1952. In the period from April to June, 2010, a working group from the JSEE, comprised of a group of female teachers from member universities and colleges and female engineers from member corporations, conducted a survey on the present conditions of women in engineering in Japan. The questionnaire in both hardcopy and on web were sent to 216 member academic institutions and 98 corporations, and responses were received from 103 institutions (48%) and 14 corporations (14%). The questions were related to basic information such as the ratio of male and female students, faculty members, or workers. As for the academic institutions, 24 questions were asked including the questions regarding the plans to increase the number of female students and the support for female faculty members. On the other hand, 31 questions were asked of the member corporations related to their efforts to improve the working environment for female workers as well as some basic questions such as the ratio of female workers, and present conditions regarding maternity/nursing leave. Ratio of female engineers The number of responses (=14 of 98) received from the member corporations was small and not really an adequate number to investigate the present conditions of women in working places in Japan. However, among those corporations that answered the survey, the ratio of female engineers was only 1.3%. Ratio of female students The ratio of female students in engineering fields among the member institutions was 11.6% in universities and 16.5% in colleges of technology. According to the 2010 Basic P ge 22860.2 School Survey of MEXT (= Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology), the ratio of female students in educational institutions as a whole is 41.1%, an increase of 0.4% from the previous year (Fig. 1). The number of female students has been increasing steadily. However, the ratio of female students in engineering is still very low. The average ratio of female students among JSEE member institutions is 14% (11.6% in universities and 16.5% in colleges of technology). Compared to the MEXT Basic School Survey in 2005, the female ratio has increased merely 0.9%. Fig. 1 Ratio of female students in educational institutions (Based on the data from MEXT Basic School Survey)