G7 Ministers for Gender Equality promise to support Female Executives

On 24th and 25^th June, female leaders from the G7 and the EU gathered in Nikko, a historic Japanese town located north of Tokyo, to debate gender parity and women's empowerment. Following recent revelation by the World Economic Forum that women only hold 25% of C-suite positions globally despite making up 42% of the workforce, the Group of Seven ministers for gender equality have vowed to "expand and support" women's representation in executive and managerial positions.

Masanobu Ogura, Japan's minister for gender equality, who was the only male participant in the meeting, served as their host. The gender-focused gathering, which was started in Italy in 2017, was hosted for the first time in Japan.

On gender equality, Japan has traditionally trailed behind its G7 counterparts. The Nikko summit was held only a few days after it was revealed that Japan's ranking in this year's WEF Global Gender Gap Report had dropped to its lowest-ever position, 125th out of 146 economies.

Italy, the second-lowest ranked G7 nation, finished in 79th place. Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, has been under local and external pressure to resolve the matter during his G7 presidency.

Women's economic empowerment was the main topic of discussion at the gender summit: "Economic security of all women and girls is a prerequisite for the full enjoyment of their rights," according to the communiqué from the ministers.

The COVID-19 pandemic's effects on women and girls were also discussed in the declaration, as was the problem of gender-based violence in war areas like Afghanistan and the Ukraine. According to the communiqué, increasing the proportion of women in senior corporate positions is essential to ensuring economic stability.

According to this year's G7 Dashboard on Gender Gaps, women made up 35.5% of board members in major public corporations on average across G7 nations in 2022. Out of the seven countries, Japan had the lowest percentage of female board members at roughly 15%.

In April, Kishida announced the objective that by 2030, at least 30% of executive board positions at businesses listed on the Prime market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange will be held by women.

According to government statistics, just 11.4% of executive positions in firms with Prime listings were held by women in 2022. 19% of those businesses had no female executives at all. By 2025, Kishida wants all leading businesses to "strive" to select at least one female executive.

In an effort to reach the 30% target, "we will make efforts to create a pipeline of female managers and provide support for women's entrepreneurship," minister Masanobu told reporters in Nikko.

He continued by saying that it was also important to close Japan's gender pay gap, which was the G7's biggest at 22%. The key to attaining these objectives, according to Masanobu, is "re-skilling" female employees, encouraging girls' education in STEM fields, and decreasing women's share of unpaid caregiving.

Masanobu said, "The suggestions and practises" of his G7 contemporaries had served as an inspiration to him. One of them was Helena Dalli, the EU's Commissioner for Equality, who last November presided over the passage of a historic regulation mandating that businesses in EU member states fill at least 33% of all director roles with women by the year 2026.

Before the Nikko meeting, Helena spoke with Nikkei Asia and said, "I call quotas a necessary evil." We wouldn't need quotas in a just and perfect society, but [gender parity] won't come on its own”, according to Helena. "Women would rule the world if it were to happen naturally; it would have happened by now."

The primary obstacles standing in the way of women achieving executive positions, according to Helena, are deeply established gender stereotypes and the disproportionate amount of care work that falls on women, both of which the epidemic only aggravated. According to the Dashboard on Gender Gaps, women in G7 nations spend about 2 hours more each day than men on unpaid care and household duties. Advocates for gender equality in Japan are dubious of the government's goal of having more women on boards because it is not mandated.

"Quotas would be better," asserted Melanie Brock, who oversees a business advising firm in Tokyo and serves on the boards of three Japanese companies, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries. She predicted that in order for it to succeed, "business fundamentals will have to come into play."

Brock claimed to have observed "a great deal of leadership" among Japan's corporate elite, many of whom now saw diversified leadership as crucial to the country's development. According to a 2019 McKinsey report, businesses with more women on their boards of directors than those without are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.

The G7 ministers agreed that women's representation in politics must be the driving force behind economic advancement. In 2022, women made up 30% of parliamentarians on average in the G7. At 10%, Japan was well below the average.

The first female British ambassador to Japan, Julia Longbottom, who represented Britain at the summit, remarked, "We want [politics] to reflect and represent the country. She told Nikkei Asia that "people need to see that mix of diversity."

This viewpoint was shared by Katrina Fotovat, a senior representative of the Secretary of State in the U.S. Office of Global Women's Issues. Assuring women and girls that they can accomplish these goals is essential, Fotovat told Nikkei Asia, adding that she was "very proud" to have Kamala Harris serve as the United States' first female vice president.

Only two of Kishida's cabinet's 19 members are female, and Japan hasn't had a female head of state like the U.S. Masanobu claimed that despite being the sole guy present on 25^th June, he had gotten "support and encouragement" from the female participants, who understood the value of male leadership on gender problems. He told reporters, "Gender is not simply a women's concern.

Women's rights advocates claim that by itself, the ministers' promises are not particularly significant. "The wording and the promises are very nice," remarked Fumie Saito, co-chair of Women7, a civil society engagement organisation that took part in the talks. However, they want specific action.