• Ueno Chizuko Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo & Director, Women's Action Network

• Shirahase Sawako TCJS Director

We have spent a year in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Times of crisis tend not to bring forth new and unprecedented change, but rather to exacerbate and amplify the familiar contradictions of everyday life. It has been those women who were already in dire straits to begin with who have felt this burden most keenly. How can a country have the world’s third largest GDP, and yet rank 121st in gender equality? This is a puzzle–and a problem–for Japanese society. By the same token, it is a puzzle–and a problem–that the University of Tokyo’s ratio of female student enrollment cannot break past 20%, even though we live in an age when four-year college enrollment rates for both men and women are about 50%. I look forward to this discussion with my former colleague Shirahase Sawako (who also serves as a UTokyo executive vice president), particularly given her speedy submission of an emergency proposal to the Japanese government as the chair of its「コロナ下の女性への影響と課題に関する研究会」.

Chizuko Ueno

Chizuko Ueno is a sociologist. She holds a Doctorate in Sociology from Kyoto University. In 1993, she became an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Tokyo. From 1995 until 2011, she was a Professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology. In 2011, she became director of the non-profit Women’s Action Network (WAN). She served as a member of the 20th–22nd Science Councils of Japan, and as an affiliate member for the 23rd–25th councils. Ueno specializes in women’s studies and gender studies, and has also done research on elder care.