Japanese Medical Schools Choose Patriarchal Beliefs Over Talent

The bias against women in medical colleges in Japan was in the news in August this year, when allegations surfaced that many schools were allegedly rigged their entrance exams to keep women out. Leading Japanese paper Asahi now reports that in a recently held press conference, representatives of Juntendo University and Kitasato University have admitted to discriminating against female applicants.

SOME TAKEAWAYS

• Representatives of Juntendo University and Kitasato University in Japan have admitted to discriminating against female applicants.
• Juntendo University set different passing scores of male and female applicants on the second exam, which included an interview.
• Their argument is that women mature mentally faster than men and their communication ability is also higher when they take the entrance exam. 
• These universities syphoned out talented women out of Japan’s medical system.

Juntendo University set different passing scores of male and female applicants on the second exam, which included an interview round. On the other hand, Kitasato University prioritised male applicants and applicants who had previously failed the exam fewer times in the past. Even more repulsive than deliberate sidelining deserving women candidates is the logic behind it. Juntendo University is defending its actions on grounds that women mature mentally faster than men and their communication ability is also higher when they take the entrance exam. Secondly, the capacity of the university's female dormitory is limited, hence it needed to reduce the number of female students.

According to Business Insider, in 2016, women made up for a mere 21% of all of Japan's doctors, as per data provided by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

But I guess even this is too much for the misogynist authorities running these medical schools. All these arguments are just excuses to cover up their reluctance to let women break the glass ceiling in the medical profession in the country, which is clearly male dominated. Just how can we expect women to succeed in a game set by men to exclusively favour men?

To say that women do not deserve competing on the same standards as men, because they mature faster is like saying they don’t deserve to be doctors because they are intelligent – it just doesn’t make any sense. Yet a medical school readily rigged its exams on this faulty logic, robbing hundreds of deserving women of a chance to become doctors. The low acceptance rate of women in medical schools will only tell other aspiring women candidates that they are unfit to become doctors. This will further discourage women from opting for this field, and eventually force them to compromise their professional lives. Isn’t this just what the patriarchy wants?

Patriarchy can stoop to any levels to restrain women to homes and raising children and medical school admission scandal in Japan is a proof of that.

Men don’t feel threatened by other men, when it comes to professional success. But they always see women as unwanted competition, they could do without.

The tactics used by these universities are not just unfair to women, but to the entire country. They syphoned out talented women, who would have made into good doctors, out of Japan’s medical system. How is that going to fare in the long run? What kind of doctors would men who needed an illegal push to clear entrance exams make into? In their need to protect patriarchy, the university administrators ended up weakening the infrastructure of a field as vital as healthcare. Thankfully, their toxicity came to light.

One of the greatest myths which patriarchy propagates is that women won’t make into great professionals, because they will make compromises for the sake of motherhood. That is so wrong. Women are forced to make professional compromises for motherhood. No woman would willingly choose to sacrifice years of education and training, if she has ample support in raising children. Thus, instead of furthering men in professional colleges purely on the basis of their gender, the people of Japan should think how skewered their mindset is, and how they are crippling their healthcare system by choosing patriarchy over talent.

Picture Credit : Premier Physician

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Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section.  The views expressed are the author’s own.