IE3 ICC Seminar: Lesson 8

6/3/2015

Hi everyone,

Over the next few weeks, we'll be busy preparing for our presentations and learning two main theories to compare cultures.

Cultural Dimensions:
Over the next two weeks, we'll be learning two main theories that are used to compare cultures. In this week's lesson, we looked at Hofstede's research that outlines five dimensions to culture:
1. individualism vs. collectivism
2. masculinity vs. femininity
3. power distance
4. uncertainty avoidance
5. long-term vs. short-term orientation

In next week's lesson, we'll review these dimensions, and then move onto Value Orientation.

Homework:
1. Research your presentation topic

outlines due June 15 before 12:00 noon

2. Blog Comment #7
3. Reading pp. 187-212 (ch. 8) and worksheet

Please download the worksheet at the end of the summary. This will be your "reflection topic" for this week. I'll collect the worksheet at the beginning of next week's lesson.

Blog Question #7:

Japan is ranked at the world's most "masculine" country.

Give three specific examples that show that Japan is a masculine country.
How does this masculinity affect gender equality? (In 2014, Japan was ranked 104 out of 142 countries for gender equality.)

*Write 150-200 words.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Monday, June 8 by 6:00pm.

Value Orientation Worksheet
File Size:	73 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

8 Comments

IE3S-Yuma

6/6/2015 09:56:29 am

The first one is the role of couple in their households.In Japan,there is a stereotype that "men should work,women should do housework."These days,this kind of stereotype is decreasing,but it still exists.It can cause a dilemma for women that we do not divorce because we cannot live our own lives.The second one is the number of women in managerial posts.In America,it is about 30%,however in Japan,it is only abou 5%.The last one is the opinion about women.If a man makes some mistakes,he is said that "He is useless."On the other hand,a woman makes some mistakes,people tend to say "Women are useless."I think muscline countries deny whole women.These musclinity affect gender equality in some ways.For example,it prevents women from advancing to the higher society.

IE3S-Jumpei

6/7/2015 01:57:45 pm

The first example is that in Japan, inside houses, there is a strict role to men and women. Men should work outside to raise your family, and women should stay inside an be a good wife. Although this phenomena is improving, I think this still remains.
The second example is that in terms of politicians, many are still men. I think it is because men are looking down to woman and thinking they can't do anything which is completely not true. Woman's actually do better in certain cases.
The last example is that men playing sports is more focused in Japan than women. Comparing major sports like soccer, players that are men appears in the media more often than women players. This might be because of the population of the sport, but still men appears in the tv then women.
This trend in Japan is being noticed more and is improving to change to become a more gender equal country. (At least the politicians are saying so) However, for some people in Japan, I think there still is a strong tendency for woman to be houseworkers than man from their will. I believe this strong gender equality has formed a value that women would want to be a good wife.
Of course there are people that don't have this idea though.
And I think masculinity is going to effect these people. Woman that want to work are increasing more and more. And if masculinity exists, it could bother them to work or even sometimes to promote.

IE3S-Takahiro

6/7/2015 02:25:48 pm

Japan is one of the world’s most economically developed countries, but, on the contrary, our rank of gender equality is consistently worse than other world richest countries. As Japan has a high standard of education system equally for both woman and man, there are few woman company executives. And the number of the statesman or bureaucrat is also less. These threes have enough power to be able to occupy a nation. That is, the less number of the woman of these three, executives, statesman and bureaucrat can work against woman unequally. Yet, in fact, there are no obstacles for woman to become an executive, statesman or bureaucrat in law. I think that this is largely because of a Japanese culture. In japan, we have a tradition that divide labor between man working outside and woman bringing up their children inside. This tradition is deeply rooted in Japanese society and makes Japanese society a masculine country. Unfortunately, the Japanese economy has faced and suffered from a long economic stagnation. And the population is aging and birth rate is decreasing. At the same time, labor population is also declining. I think now is the best, last chance for Japan to change.

IE3S-Kentaro

6/7/2015 04:37:21 pm

Even though the rights for women in Japan has been gradually guaranteed, they are still discriminated to some extent, compared to other countries in the world. Firstly, there are still just a few women working in the field of politics, though the number has been increasing. While there are some countries where a woman is its leader like president, Japan has never accepted any women to be its leader. That's because there is an underlying notion that women should work under control of men. Secondly, in companies, men usually occupy the status of exectives. This fact also shows that it is thought that men are stronger than women and that men are more likely to be learders than women. Thirdly, the proportion of men who take time off from work to raise their children is still quite low, which prevents women from seeking their career. "Men should work, women should be engaged in housework." This traditional idea should be removed. This masculine society has quite a huge impact on Japanese society itself, since women's ideas are rejected with no reason, which leads it to be biased. The society will never be working well without women's ideas. I hope the day will come when women are working just like men, and that equal rights for women will be guaranteed as soon as possible.

IE3S-Manami

6/7/2015 05:15:48 pm

One of the examples is the roles. The stereotype is that men should work and women should stay home. Another example can be seen when it comes to the job huntting. The government asks companies to hire as many girl as they hire boys. The other example is also about jobs. Many women stay outside the house and work these days. However it is still hard to get a better position. Most women never become CEO.
It is important to claim women's rights and the equality but I sometimes think it's getting a little too much. I feel like now men are treated worse but if they say it, then feminists will say he is a masculist. It is very important to give rights to women who don't have and at the same time, it is important to keep the people's equality equal.

IE3S-Kohei

6/7/2015 05:18:52 pm

The equality of the genders is clearly stated in the Japanese constitution. However there are still lots of inequalities.
First of all, women in Japan are usually supposed to be in charge of the housework. The Japanese word "Kanai" shows clearly that Japanese people thinks so. In today's Japanese society, it is said that much less people think so than before. However, I think this word strongly shows this belief.
Secondly, although there is the Equal Employment Opportunity Law for Men and Women, it is still difficult for women to get promoted. This is also because some people still think that women shouldn't work outside but they should work inside their house.
Finally, there are very few women politicians in Japan. Only 7.4% of members of the national Diet are women. This rate is quite low compared to other foreign countries such as Northern European countries.
Of course most people want the equalities of the genders. And there are many laws that provide the equalities. Most important thing is not what government do but what we individual actually do.

IE3S-Saya

6/7/2015 05:51:37 pm

One example that shows Japan is a masculine country is that the greatest importance in life is achievement. In
some cultures, the process is valued but in Japan, it is the result that is valued. This is connected to the characteristics of a
high context culture. Second example is about men and women having different roles in society. Especially, in Japan, it is expected for men to work and women to be housewives. The idea of that is so common in Japan that women who want to work are the minorities. Third example is about working time. Japanese people work hard and so they work for longer hours and take really short vacations. This is somewhat connected to over time jobs which is often seen in Japanese companies. Japan being one of the most masculine country greatly affects gender equality. As I said, men and women have different roles in the society. As long as this fact exist, it is difficult to have gender equality because men and women have different positions. At the same time, men are usually in a higher status.

IE3S-Sayaka

6/7/2015 06:47:08 pm

First of all, there have been a kind of prejudice that men work and women do housework since a long time ago in Japan. And women could not get the right to vote until the end of the second World War. Also, there have been no women prime minister chosen before, so that can be one of the causes why Japan is called masculinity country.
And that would affect people's way of thinking. People tend to think women cannot get higher position in society, then women's power is getting lower and lower. Although this is changing these days, there are some left.

IE3 ICC Seminar: Lesson 8

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