University of Tokyo Wants More Female Professors

Japan lags behind global standards for the number of women in most sectors of employment. Japan's leading university, the University of Tokyo, announced in fall of 2021 that it wanted to increase the ratio of female faculty members from 16% to 25%. 

Last week it said it wants to push for more diversity on campus and aims to double its number of female professors and associate professors to around 400 by fiscal year 2027. In May 2022, 274 of the 2,322 professors and associate professors at the University of Tokyo were women. The university plans to hire 141 new female professors and 165 female associate professors by fiscal 2027, which will bring the number of women professors to about 400, after taking into account retirees. The university announced it will also hire more women lecturers and assistant professors, with the plan for women to make up about 1,200 of its roughly 4,800 faculty members. In addition, the university plans for women to make up 30% or more of the student body. 

In higher education institutions in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, the average ratio for female faculty members was 45%.  The average for female faculty members at Japanese universities overall is 30%, so the University of Tokyo's new goal still falls short of the Japanese average. What do you think the average number of women professors is where you live? Is there any effort to increase the number?