International comparative study on gender responsivd policies: their effectiveness and applicability to Japan

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research aims at identifying the main factors to promote gender mainstreaming policies in three countries, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. Through the field studies from 1998 to 2000 in the three countries, those factors were further assessed by the appropriateness and feasibilities for the application to the gender mainstreaming in Japanese government.The three countries were chosen, since Korean women's labour participation rate shows similar trends to Japanese women due to the similar social norms influenced by Confucian theory. The Korea has, however, made a remarkable progress in gender equality policies, including the establishment of the Ministry of Women and the formulation of various laws on promoting gender equality. Women in the United Kingdom used to show the similar M shaped labour participation rates to Japan and Korea although the curve is not serious like that of the two countries. On the other hand, the United Kingdom is one of the leading countries regarding gender impact analysis of national policies. The Philippine was chosen as the country has been the front runner in terms of gender mainstreaming policies not only in Asia but also in the world. The following six key factors were identified to promote gender equality in three countries.1. The existence of gender sensitive persons at the top national decision making level.2. Collaboration with female law makers, by establishing and utilizing a women's committee at the parliament in the respective countries.3. Promotion of the collaboration and solidarity among non-govemmental organizations for gender equality4. Promotion of the legislation for gender equality5. Existence of strong national machinery for the advancement of women6. Providing effective gender sensitive training courses to government officialsAmong the above five factors, the author concludes that no. 3 and no. 6 could be the most applicable to Japan.