The Status of Implementation of Women-only Open Recruitment for University Faculty Positions

Abstract

In recent years, universities have been increasing the number of open recruitment of faculty members by limiting the number of applicants to women in order to secure diversity and close the gender gap. However, although there are many data on the ratio of female faculty members, there are no data on the implementation status of female-only open recruitment. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of recruitment, such as research fields, job classifications, and tenure, based on the extracted data of female-only open recruitment from the information on open recruitment. There were 225 female-only job openings in FY2023, and national universities accounted for 80% of them, with universities in western Japan tending to have a larger number of female-only job openings. In terms of research fields, the largest number of applications was in “life science” (83), which includes medicine and biology, while “information and communication” and “manufacturing technology” related to science and engineering were also common. In terms of employment status, many of the positions were intended for young researchers, such as associate professor and assistant professor, and these positions had a fixed term of employment, which means that the support system after employment should be enhanced.