Gender is an important theme in social studies of science and science and technology policies (e.g. Fox et al. Citation2017). In Japan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (男女雇用機会均等法 danjo koyou kikai kintou hou) was enacted in 1986, and the Basic Act for Gender Equal Society (男女共同参画社会基本法 danjo kyoudou sankaku syakai kihon hou) in 1999. However, Japan’s gender gap is still considerable, with academia being no exception. For example, at Japanese universities and relevant institutes in 2021, women made up only 15.4% of all researchers in science, 12.5% in engineering, and 23.7% in agricultural science (Gender Equality Bureau Citation2022: 147). This low representation is perhaps because the Japanese government got serious about policies and programs for women researchers only in the mid-2000s, almost decades after the countries and regions like the US and Europe.
This book provides a concise but insightful overview of the history and reality of women researchers and related policies in Japan, the US, Europe, and China. Consisting of two parts, the book is written by six authors: Ginko Kawano, Mariko Ogawa, Miwa Yokoyama, Hisako Ohtsubo, Keiko Ohama, and Kae Takarabe. Their academic interests include, but are not limited to, gender studies, gender and science and technology policy, sociology of education, comparative education, and history of science. The book is a product of their “Gender and Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics: Comparative Studies on Policies Promoting Women's Participation in STEM Fields” project, funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research in Japan between 2016 and 2019. However, their collaborative efforts can be traced back to the mid-2000s, when Ogawa started a project to study women researchers in Asian countries.
