The Language Teacher
05 - 2001
Employment Discrimination, Foreign Women and SCOEP
Michael H. Fox
Hyogo College
Looking back at Japanese society over the past two decades, we can observe two antithetical societal trends which have had an impact on the profession of ESL: the internationalism of the 1980s and the nationalism of the 1990s. The internationalism grew out of financial success -- in the 1980s Japan's treasuries were bulging with excess cash. As these fortunes were largely made from exporting, and as the gradual rise in the value of the yen attracted many foreigners to these shores, the abstract notion of internationalization, a word not listed in many dictionaries, began to bloom. The JET program was launched, the Diet enacted a law allowing foreign personnel to be employed by national and public universities under the same terms as Japanese (Hall, 1998, p.94-5), and private schools and colleges were eager to hire foreigners.
This trend came to a halt with the bubble burst of the asset-based lending policies, dropping the economy into the deepest recession of the post-war era. This recession not only gutted the discussion of internationalism, it stimulated a backlash of nationalism and the call for a return to traditional values. In the educational sector, the first painful effect of this tremor was the massacre of non-tenured foreign faculty at national and public universities (Hall, 1998, p.80-122). At the time, concerned members of JALT wanted to take action, but their efforts were derailed by those who were still clutching at past illusions of internationalization and a "we gaijin are guests" mentality.
A second throwback to nationalism has been the establishment of a new system of academic tenure: limited term contracts for the employment of university faculty at tertiary institutions (Fox, Shiozawa & Aldwinckle, 1999). When this system began, there was an anticipation that the status of foreign educators would improve since Japanese and foreigners alike would now be in the same boat. Needless to say, this has not been the case, and many Japanese educators continue to be granted automatic tenure while foreign educators are offered three to five year disposable positions, a phenomenon witnessed quite vividly in the Job Information Center section of The Language Teacher.
I see a new attack looming against a large segment of ESL educators: foreign women. This attack is a backlash to the rising empowerment of Japanese women in society. Women are taking their cases to the courts and suing for sexual harassment and wage discrimination. Witness the recent resignation and public humiliation of the governor of Osaka for sexual harassment, and the introduction of ombudsmen and harassment awareness programs at both campuses and companies. And as more women seek working careers, they are having fewer children, a trend which has drawn ire from conservative males.
Most prominent among this proudly conservative class is Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro, former avant-garde author, now right wing politician. In order to trim Tokyo's budget, he wants to dismantle the Tokyo Women's Foundation, an agency which has reaped great benefits for little financial input (Japan Times, December 3, 2000). The meaning of this terse action is, "If women have problems at work let them go home."
Teaching company workers back in the early 1980s, I was astounded by those who proudly declared that in Japan, "man is number one." They jokingly ridiculed the USA as "a place where men make tea for women." I suppose many of these men are now in upper management positions and defiantly protective of their ideologies. Like true corporate samurai, they prefer to fight rather than to yield.
The attack on foreign women is gaining momentum in other sectors. In 1998, the Japan Women's Volleyball Association banned the participation of foreign women. Association officials said, "Japanese players were too dependent on the imports, and thus doing a disservice to their own game" (Asahi Evening News Nov. 17, 1999). This action smells of hypocrisy in comparison to male professional sporting leagues, particularly basketball, which actively encourage foreigner athletes to seek Japanese nationality so each team can exceed the established quota. The Japan Women's Volleyball Association is run by men, not women, which is probably one reason for this wanton discrimination.
The ESL world is seeing a tidal wave of animosity directed against foreign women in the form of dismissals. Salient among the crowd is Gwendolyn Gallagher who was dismissed from Asahikawa University after twelve years of continuous service because "she had become too Japanese" and the university saw a need for "fresh gaijin" (Fox, Shiozawa & Aldwinckle, 1999). Recently, Cathy Era, a nineteen year veteran at International Christian University, was abruptly dismissed without reason. Jill Robbins, an active JALT officer with a PhD in TESL, was dismissed from one of the Kansai's prestigious private schools, Kwansei Gakuin University, at the end of her contract. In order to cope with the rising stature of Japanese women, the reactionary male mentality needs an outlet for anger. These targets, of late, have been foreign women.
Can JALT do anything to mitigate this problem? Yes, JALT can and should do something. Fortunately, the organization has revived its "Standing Committee on Employment Practices" (SCOEP) whose duties are to a) monitor the links between educational policies and employment status, and b) research the existence and ramifications of discriminatory practices; and all manner of employment and labor issues. Though still in an early stage, SCOEP will help empower JALT to defend the interests of the profession against hostile, unethical, and illegal policies.
The purpose of any academic association is to improve society through research and education. When hostility and injustice are directed against JALT or its members, the association must take a stand to defend itself and the profession. To do otherwise is to betray language education and, ultimately, ourselves.
Michael H. Fox <thefox@humans-kc.hyogo-dai.ac.jp>
Fox, M., Shiozawa, T., and Aldwinckle, D. (1999). A New system of university tenure: remedy or disease. The Language Teacher, 23 (8), 13-15, 18.
Hall, I. (1998). Cartels of the mind. New York: Norton.
Women's groups decry foundation's demise. (2000, December 3). The Japan Times, p. 3.
Star Player spiked from V-League. (1999, November 11). Asahi Evening News, p. 2
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