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NIG has a long history of female researchers. The ratio of female faculty members at NIG over the years is shown in Figure 1. The blue line shows the proportion of female researchers as assistant professors or in equivalent positions, and the violet line shows the proportion of females in the PI position (professor and associate professor) who head laboratories. In this graph, we can envision the past era, where Drs. Tomoko Ota and Akiko Morishima played an active role in the 60s, and served as two prominent female professors in the 80s. As you can imagine, this was quite extraordinary for universities and research institutes in those male-dominated days.
Around 2000, NIG was famous for having many female researchers. A distinctive characteristic of NIG then was the high proportion of female researchers in the PI position, whereas the female proportion of assistant professors was not as high. This was uncommon in Japanese universities and research institutes because, in general, the number of women in the workplace markedly decreases as the position becomes higher, according to the custom that women leave the workforce for life events. It was therefore surprising for an organization to have more female senior and associate professors than young junior faculty members. Moreover, the 20% ratio of women in the PI position was high in Japan at that time. I was often asked about the secret of NIG regarding gender equality activities. (Why so many female researchers at NIG? 2005 Japanese article)
Soon afterward, the wave of affirmative action for female researchers spread to Japanese academia. Accordingly, many universities and research institutions initiated positive actions to hire more female researchers, whereas NIG did not take any special action, thereby reducing the proportion of female researchers to the "normal" level. However, the proportion of female researchers at NIG did not “decrease” during this period. As shown in Figure 2, other universities simply increased the proportion and overtook the position of NIG. To counteract this decreasing trend, the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), which NIG belongs to, launched the Promotion Program for Female Researchers in AY2014, and accordingly, NIG conducted faculty recruitment targeting women. You can see the effects of this action in the right end corner of the graph (Figure 1).
Lastly, let us reveal the real picture of NIG. The proportion of women at NIG is shown in Figure 3. The area of the circle is proportional to the number of employees. Based on these data, there are actually more women working at NIG. How does this happen in a research field that is supposed to be dominated by men?
The largest circle in Figure 3 indicates "technical assistant". This is a job to support researchers' experiments. Simply put, this occupation mostly comprises part-time workers. The same is true for administrative staff. Only 30% of the full-time administrative employees are female, whereas the administrative supporting staff, mostly working part-time, are almost exclusively female. Thus, the demographics clearly reflect the common practice in Japanese society.
I often hear comments such as "this woman doesn't want a hard working style as a breadwinner”. Of course, everyone is free to choose how they work and it is a basic human right. However, before commenting on this, please think whether you would mention the same thing for men. Do you think that "men should work as full-time employees, otherwise they cannot make ends meet" or "fixed-term male post-docs are not really ready to start a family" If so, you may have an underlying sexual prejudice. Individual abilities and performances should be evaluated equally regardless of personal background. If you feel that the person excels at what is expected for the position, then that person should be treated properly in their working conditions.
From my personal experience, the working style that people prefer is greatly influenced by their surroundings. In particular, encouragement from colleagues is powerful and precious in science, which is a highly competitive and aggressive work environment. One cliché statement from leading researchers is that "highly talented female researchers with excellent scientific ability tend to leave science easily". This may be true, but if you personally know such a female researcher around you, please tell her your honest opinion, e.g. "You will be a good scientist." "I think you will survive through the competitive research field" or "You should aim at having your own independent lab". It is highly effective and meaningful for young talents to receive fair encouragement from their close mentors and colleagues who know them well.
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