April 21st marks Kartini Day for Indonesians, memorialising a national hero who fought for equal educational rights for women, among others. In small and big ways, Indonesian women have continued to carry her legacy in pursuing a more equal society, not least in the realm of higher education and research. In this article, Indonesia Mengglobal Columnist Audrey Stephanie shares her reflections and insights from pursuing higher education in Japan within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field.
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There is a popular saying on the internet that being a woman is playing the game of life on hard mode. This holds true even today, and Indonesia is by and large a patriarchal society as yet. Although the younger generations are doing better to shake this status quo, this way of life is still deeply ingrained in many aspects of our lives. As a woman who was trying to pursue a higher education in the STEM field, I experienced this manyfold.
When I communicated my desire to further my studies, I was met by resistance from friends and relatives who were worried about my desirability for marriage should I be successful in that aspect on top of the typical concerns about letting an inexperienced young adult go alone to a foreign country. It took a mixture of convincing them, stamping out my own doubts, and a healthy dosage of assertiveness to ignore the less well-meaning comments to finally step forward with the decision.
And so in 2017, I went to Japan to pursue my postgraduate degree.
Even before going there, I was aware that Japan was not the best country in terms of gender equality. Although the country’s famous safety meant that a woman can walk alone in the middle of the night without too much worry, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) has noted that Japan placed the fourth lowest among 51 most developed countries in the number of female political representatives. Based on the percentage of women who participate in the workforce, Japan ranked the sixth lowest. In my alma mater Tohoku University, despite it being the first university to accept female students in Japan in 1913, only one Professor was a woman out of all the 10 Professors in my department.
However, Japan is trying to change. For example, in 2013 the late ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe announced Womenomics policy to help reduce gender inequality in the Japanese economic system. Although the progress has not been as smooth-sailing as we would hope, it remains a fact that the wage gap between males and females as well as the female labour participation percentage in Japan continue to improve as time goes by. In 2019 GII even reported that the country was ahead of several European countries, especially in the fields of reproductive health and higher education attainment.
This opened up many doors for women who aspire to go there. The push to increase gender inclusivity heralded scholarships and job opportunities aimed for women such as:
The Japanese Association of University Women provides two fellowships for women from countries other than Japan who want to study or carry out research. A grantee may get up to ¥1,000,000 in total. Upon arrival, a third of the total amount will be paid; the remaining amount will be paid according to the situation. This fellowship is exclusive to women. The minimum requirement for applicants is a Master’s degree or its equivalent.
Established in 1981, the Non-Japanese Graduate Program (NJG) from the College Women’s Association of Japan (CWAJ) provides funding for non-Japanese women enrolled in PhD programs at Japanese universities to pursue graduate studies in Japan. Scholarships are given out based on a candidate’s capacity to have a positive impact on society, the calibre and viability of her planned course of study, and her outstanding academic record. There are no age or study-related limits with the scholarship.
In 2013, the centennial year of Tohoku University’s first admission of female students, the “Action Guidelines for the Promotion of Gender Equality” were formulated, leading to the establishment of the Center for the Promotion of Gender Equality (TUMUG) in 2014. This project has several programs to promote gender equality and increase the number of female faculty members and female students such as Support for Promoting Utilisation of the Cross-appointment System and Young Distinguished Professor Program for International and Women Researchers.
- Other University Scholarships
Some other individual universities also provide scholarships such as Nara Women’s University Nadeshiko Fund Scholarship for International Students, Showa Women’s University International Student Support Scholarship, and Fukuoka Women’s University International Student Financial Support.
This list is by no means exhaustive. Programs designed to increase female welfare in Japan are still being continuously created, even at the more infrastructural levels.
Looking back at my stay there, this became apparent. I witnessed how the country’s prized transportation systems coupled with its robust public security systems provided safe ways for children to commute, eliminating the need for their guardians to closely supervise this process — a role traditionally taken by women. Female-only public train cars, designated to ensure both the safety and comfort of female passengers, were commonplace.
During the six years I spent studying at Tohoku University, I saw how despite Japan’s plummeting birth rate, several government-subsidised daycare facilities were constructed and how they benefited working mothers as well as mothers who wanted to further their studies.
My laboratory itself was also phenomenal in terms of inclusivity and gender equality. Boasting around fifty percent of foreign students of various regions and ethnicities, the lab was also the one with the most number of female researchers in the entire department. One of my supervisors, the Assistant Professor, was a non-native mother of two who has moved to the position of Associate Professor since my departure in April 2023. There are now two additional female Associate Professors, well on their way towards becoming fully tenured Professors. The conversations I had with the younger male Japanese students there also left me convinced that sooner rather than later, things will change in this country.
Although they might have had a late head start, Japan is moving forward. This is a windfall that can give us a chance to learn from them, for our own personal gains, for the future of Indonesian women in the STEM fields, and ultimately for the prosperity of Indonesia itself.