A recent report by The Economist found that although Japan educates its women to a higher level than nearly anywhere else in the world, the potential of Japanese women is not fulfilled when they leave university, well before reaching what they term the ‘bamboo ceiling’.
Despite the fact Japanese girls nearly top the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) education league-tables, female participation in the Japanese workforce is sitting at only 63 per cent.
It’s largely cultural; The Economist interviewed one woman in Japan who, after landing a high-paying dream job after university, felt the need to reassure her boyfriend’s parents that she would ‘of course’ reconsider her career after a few years.
But what about closer to home? In Australia, like Japan, our girls are streets ahead academically and Australian women are only slightly ahead of Japan with the workforce participation rate at 65.2 per cent.
Last year the Council of Australian Government (COAG) Reform Council published a report for the Federal Government titled, Tracking equity: comparing outcomes for women and girls across Australia, which found that girls have achieved equity or surpassed boys in school literacy, as well as Year 12 and higher qualification attainment.
Yet despite these achievements, gender gaps remain in workforce participation, pay and representation in leadership roles – and this has economic implications across a woman’s lifespan, resulting in lower overall pay and smaller superannuation savings on retirement.
Like Japan, there is a cultural issue here in Australia too. For even if greater opportunity existed for women at work, many women don’t have the support on the home front to put in the additional hours on the job that usually go hand-in-hand with higher paying roles.
The AMP.NATSEM report Race Against Time found Australian women spend two hours more on housework, childcare and shopping each day than Australian men. This is time spent which takes away from a woman’s ability to be engaging in paid work or study – if she so chooses.
It is time that we start talking more about equality on the home front. If the status quo in your home is not 50/50, it’s time to speak up. Silence is usually taken as tacit agreement, so if you say nothing your other half may well assume you’re okay with the status quo.
Start by telling your partner that you believe that it’s only fair that you work as a team to complete the housework together so that the load doesn’t fall to one person and you can both enjoy your free time. Use the words ‘we’ and ‘our’ so it’s clear that you’re being team-oriented and not playing the blame game.
If they don’t like this then suggest that you hire a cleaner instead and that you both do a half hour of ‘tidying up’ for a set time each day.
Equally, if the child care always or mostly falls to you, start a conversation around the importance of fathers spending time with their children and talk about how you could both make this happen in your family.
Ultimately, when you’re both working it’s only fair that outside of work all the unpaid jobs are shared evenly.
Having a culture where women are the primary housekeeper and child care provider isn’t supporting our nation – it’s holding us back.
The Economist concluded that women’s lowly status in the Japanese workplace has barely improved in decades, and the country suffers as a result. Let’s hope the same fate does not befall Australia.
The bottom line is that when you are sharing a life, home and family, you are a team and that should extend to all income that comes into the home. It is a partnership with equal entitlements along the way.