Policies to Support Female Researchers at Universities: Interviews with Top-Level Researchers at U.S. Universities

Abstract

 Since the 2000s, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has led several projects to support female researchers. As a result, the percentage of female researchers at national universities has been increasing, but is still low compared to Western countries, with even lower percentages in top positions.

 While previous studies have proposed “compulsory promotion of female researchers to higher positions through quotas” and “organizational reform” as measures to overcome the current situation, few studies have delved deeper into specific methods for “changing the mindset” of male researchers, who constitute the majority of the organization.

 In this study, we interviewed two male researchers who have conducted research activities at U.S. universities and have experienced initiatives that have actually increased the number of female researchers. The results revealed that in U.S. universities, when the majority of male researchers understood that increasing the number of female researchers was beneficial to their organizations and to themselves, their awareness changed, resulting in “organizational change.”