Seminar “IGS Research Debrief Session of affiliated researchers”
In the fiscal year of 2020, Dr. Sumika Yamane and Dr. Junko Sano belonged to the Institute for Gender Studies (IGS) of Ochanomizu University as the affiliated researchers and conducted research activities. IGS requires affiliated researchers to report their research activities and achievement of the fiscal year. We held the online IGS debrief session for the affiliated researchers on March 11th, 2021, and Yamane and Sano gave a presentation about their research. The main participants were on-campus researchers.
The first presenter, Yamane gave a presentation titled “Does the Marketization of Care and Domestic Work Promote Gender Equality?” It is said that care of family and domestic work are major issues of gender equality. Recently outsourcing of family care and domestic work has been popular, the neoliberal solution of purchasing them is becoming mainstream. However, household income creates a hierarchical gap in the purchasing power of these services, it is difficult for low-income households to purchase them, and then care and domestic work are becoming more of a burden on families than ever before. Women in particular are more likely to take charge of them, the marketization of care and domestic work is leading to disparities between women and weakening of female workers. In the presentation, Yamane introduced the current marketization for care and domestic work in other countries. She introduced tax deduction for purchasing care and domestic work services in Sweden, and she mentioned that the quality and quantity of care and domestic work are different due to the disparity in household income. The marketization policies of care and domestic work in Japan’s aging society with declining birthrate are not designed that care and domestic work services are provided equally to all citizens, and it has caused further increasing the disparity between individuals and men and women. Therefore, she concluded that the design of policy and system itself has problems.
The second presenter, Sano, gave a presentation titled “Women’s Financial Behavior in A Longevity Society (Asset Management and choices)― Consideration from the Survey Result by the Japan Securities Dealers Association”. In Japan’s longevity society, the average life expectancy of women is about 6 years longer than that of men, which means that it is important for women to manage their own assets. Sano tried to analyze women’s financial behavior regarding asset management and choices by using the survey result of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, “National Survey on Securities Investment” (2018). She focused on the factors behind gender differences in financial behavior and the differences between those who think they need securities investment and those who do not think that way, and she introduced her analysis and insights. Various studies have pointed out that women have less experience in financial education, therefore, tend to have inferior financial literacy than men, and avoid risks in asset management. However, Sano said that employment forms such as regular or non-regular employment may have more influence on asset management and asset management awareness than gender differences. She noted that early financial education in school education could be benefit for people in their future.
Various questions and comments were raised among the participants about two presentations, and we could have meaningful discussion. Finally, Professor Yoko Totani, the IGS director, gave a general remark about the debriefing session, and the two-hour debriefing session was closed.
Reported by SEMBA Yukari
（Project Research Fellow, IGS, Ochanomizu University）
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《Event Details》 【Date/Time】March 11, 2021, 14:00–16:00 (JST) |
