Forging a Chain of Support between Female Researchers and the Next Generation

Forging a Chain of Support between Female Researchers and the Next Generation, a project selected by MEXT as a "Model Program to Nurture Support for Female Researchers" under a 2007 Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology, was implemented from July 2007 to March 2010.

Logo This logo represents an Osaka University campus, a campus filled with personnel possessing diverse abilities and characteristics. The logo also represents a chain of support, inspiring and supporting future generations.

March 2010

To explain in more detail:

• (1) Career Design Laboratory for Women

  Purpose

  The Career Design Laboratory for Women will promote community-cooperation-style interdisciplinary research regarding female careers by providing general subject classes and through a network for careers for female researchers.

  Achievements

  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women provided general education classes providing education in order to raise the students' awareness of gender equality.
  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women has contributed to forming a place for research about career development for female researchers by inviting local businesses and university-related persons to symposiums and seminars hosted by Osaka University and by participating in symposiums, workshops, and meetings sponsored by other research institutes and local communities. The Laboratory has used these achievements when giving advice to female researchers in their career counseling.
  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women has analyzed results of questionnaires conducted throughout the university in terms of statistics. The Laboratory has also reanalyzed results of past surveys. The Laboratory has obtained data to be used for promoting gender equality at university and work-life balance and published the results.

• (2) Implementation of the Research Supporters System
  

  Purpose

  The Career Design Laboratory for Women will employ 50 or more individuals who have completed graduate school and current students for three years as support researchers in support of female researchers.

  Achievements

  • In the last 3 years, the Career Design Laboratory for Women deployed 102 research supporters, more than twice the goal. (The actual number of research supporters was 52. )
  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women has examined the effect of the research support system by conducting questionnaires for users and surveys for all full-time faculty members and clarified problems of management rules. Based on these survey results, the Laboratory has improved the system, increasing the scope of users.
• (3) Improvement and newly established on-campus child-care centers

  Purpose

  The Career Design Laboratory for Women plans to increase the capacity of child-care centers by 200% and raise the age of children that they look after to those of school age by increasing on-campus child care centers.  The Laboratory also will provide a variety of child-care services for female researchers.

  Achievements

  The on-campus child-care centers have been modified and expanded. Additionally, their management was shifted from centers themselves to university, leading to 2.25 times increase of capacity from 44 to 99, not only raising the age of children that are looked after, various child-care services such as extended day care, Saturday day care, and day care for children not in good physical condition.

• (4) Other support services

  Purpose

  • As part of support measures for female researchers' pregnancy and child-birth, the Career Design Laboratory for Women will provide physical exams for pregnant women at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Additionally, the Faculty of Medicine and Osaka University Dental Hospital will conduct medical checkup and dental examination for children attending the day-care centers.
  • In cooperation with the Campus Design Laboratory, the Career Design Laboratory for Women will create a safer and better working environment for women by setting up a resting room with a private area for mothers to use a breast pump and also by improving toilets and security equipment on campus.

  Achievements

  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women has implemented physical exams for pregnant women and established the outpatient management system to support female researchers. This system also deals with postpartum nauseousness, which was not included in the original goals.
  • The Career Design Laboratory for Women has also established systems for medical checkup, dental examinations for children attending the on-campus day-care centers, and emergency strategies. Although not included in the original plan as concrete ideas, special doctors at the Department of Pediatrics of the University Hospital will provide parents of children attending the day-care centers with child-care counseling regarding their child's mental and physical development, as needed.
  • Based on results of the questionnaire surveys conducted in 2008, a resting room for women with a private area for mothers to use a breast pump was set up in the Administration Bureau in 2009. Additionally, resting rooms for women in 13 schools were improved to secure a private area for mothers to use a breast pump. The Laboratory has also improved toilets and security equipment on campus to create a safer and better working environment for women.
• (5) Numerical targets
  

  Purpose

  We plan to increase the number of full-time female researchers in the Science Schools (except for Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine) by 30% over 3 years. 

  Achievements

  • The number of full-time female researchers in the Science Schools (except for Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine) increased 30%, to 164. This figure significantly exceeds the target figure of 148, achieving our goals.
  • The ratio of full-time female researchers in the Science Schools was 5.6% in the beginning of 2007, but it increased to 7.2% at the end of 2009. The percentage is 3 points higher. Furthermore, we also achieved the target ratio of female researchers to the whole university, 11.3%.
  
  



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