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Researching
and Mothering: One Person's
IRecent changes
in government policy in Japan aim to shift in public attitudes toward and institute
changes in the social systems available for working parents. These will hopefully
change the working environment for men and women in Japan. There has been some
success, too, for example: the increasing rate of female employment, the growing
number of dual income households, and other government initiatives aimed at realizing
gender-equality in our society such as the Equal Opportunities Act* But, in reality,
women still work in situations that limit their ability explore a career and support
a family. In 2001, the Cabinet Office established the Council for Gender Equality
to reinforce systems with the expressed goal of realizing gender equality in Japan.
While working conditions are different in scientific research, many female scientists
with children experience the same difficulties as working mothers in other professions.
In July, the Japan Academy of Women Scientists organized a debate on the theme
of "Gender Equality in Research" that centred on a lecture by Yoshikazu
Toyama, General Manager of the Fujitsu Space Technology Development Group, and
the data he presented. In his report, he indicated that work related male-female
gaps are most clearly manifested in number of children and promotion issues, making
it extremely difficult for women to attain real independence as researchers. To
explore this issue at RIKEN BSI, we spoke to Miwako Ozaki, a staff scientist on
the Neural Architecture Team, who is also mother to an eight-year-old son.
"Certainly, it is difficult to make a living as a researcher while being
married and raising children", says Dr.Ozaki. "You rely very much on
babysitters, and paying them can eat up a considerable part of your income. As
you know, research group meetings often start at eight or nine in the evening.
Usually I finish the day's work, go home to have dinner with my son and put him
to bed before returning to the lab.
"Despite all this, though, I find it very attractive to continue my career
as a researcher at the same time as raising a child." Dr.Ozaki's research
theme is "architecture and plasticity of the brain's neural network".
In June this year, she won an Award from the Japan Academy of Women Scientists.
Her research achievements have also brought her considerable international acclaim.
In 1994, she went to the United States together with her husband and newborn baby.
There, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at NIH (the National Institutes of
Health). She says it is difficult for a woman to continue working while maintaining
a family, regardless of country or nationality.
Financial
independence is the key to a woman's career
Dr.Ozaki has followed
a somewhat unique path-she studied economics before re-enrolling in pharmacology,
taking a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, and starting her research career. She had
completely planned this path from the start of her studies, rather than (as many
do) changing tracks mid stream.
"From senior high school, I knew that I wanted to make a living as a researcher
and also to have children. And when I wondered how I could achieve both of these,
I realized that financial independence would be the key. You can't fulfil your
dreams if you're struggling to make a living. The constraints are too numerous.
I realized that, to build a foundation for my career, I needed to study economics
as a practical science, then actually become independent and win the freedom never
to depend on anyone."
With the smile of a shrewd senior high school student, Dr.Ozaki continues:"But
that's not to say that I do my research just to earn money. My source of motivation
towards research is an interest in human beings, to be more exact, an interest
in myself. You could say that income and peer acclaim are secondary to this. On
the other hand, that doesn't mean I'd be glad to research for peanuts. My income
as a staff scientist reflects an appraisal of my research. As such, of course
I would be delighted to be paid more, and in fact that is one of my aims. I constantly
strive to be a research professional. And as long as we have a fair system of
evaluation, there should be no distinction between male and female researchers."
I am sound old-fashioned, but this sounds just like the thinking of a top New
York businessman. Isn't it difficult to balance this philosophy with a family
life that places value on raising children?
"Not at all. Having experienced life as a researcher while bringing up my
child in both Japan and America, I think the development of social systems to
support working mothers in Japan has, more or less, reached the same level as
in the US. There, however, it is definitely easier to do research while raising
children. For example, as long as your research is going smoothly and it doesn't
inconvenience others, it's OK to go home early or to leave work for a while. At
least, I didn't feel so much insistence on form without substance, where you have
to stay at work even if there's no work to do. In Japan, on the contrary, the
present reality is that things are not so easily separated. I think a lot of us
pay too much attention to those around us, and can't go home even though we're
concerned about our children. When we're forced to take time off or leave work
for childcare, we feel guilty. The Japanese government is attempting various reforms
to buck the trend towards fewer children andmake better use of the female labour
force. Institutionally, a lot of problems are gradually being solved. However,
if we remember the basic rationale, customs and culture of the people behind these
institutions and systems, I think that combining the career of a researcher with
that of a mother in Japan is still, unfortunately, not so easy."
At the
"Public Seminar on Gender Equality in Research" held in July (in the
front row on the right is Masuko Suzuki, Chair of the Seminar and Secretary of
the Science Council of Japan Committee; on the left, Yoshikazu Toyama, General
Manager of the Fujitsu Space Technology Development Group. Mr. Toyama is also
the husband of Junko Toyama, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology.) |
Childcare
and research work are mutually irreplaceable
Dr.Ozaki doesn't
want mothers to give up too easily on the idea of continuing a research career
while raising children. "My son might be angry to hear me say this, but for
someone who's researching brain science it is of very great interest to observe
a child's growth and changes in thinking. Educating children is a question of
stimulating the brain to produce some kind of change or development. That's why
raising children, in itself, is so very interesting. It's also a good way of getting
to know yourself. In a sense, it may be part of my research. Balancing motherhood
with a research career, though not easy, has never seemed painful or hard work
to me.
"So far, I myself haven't enjoyed a particularly favourable environment in
terms of this balance between research and family. I'm still in the process of
raising a child and I often feel constraints of time as well as social difficulties.
But even so, I never regret going down the path I'm on now. My feeling is that,
even if I make some mistakes in my life, it may not be so bad to experience different
things and live life to the fullest. This is my policy, and I would be delighted
if more and more people started to feel the same way."
*The Law Concerning the Promotion of Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men
and Women in Employment and Other Welfare Measures for Women Workers (Amendment
of Labor Standards Law) |
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