Sexism, Meritocracy, and Attitudes toward the “Girls’ Quota” in Japan

• In Event: Joint Roundtables: Social Psychology Section and Sociology of Emotions Section
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5 - Politics

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court repealed the right for colleges and universities to consider race for admissions in 2023. In contrast, the Japanese government recommended universities to consider gender in admissions to certain STEM departments the previous year. Currently, more than 80 universities use joshi waku (meaning “girls’ quota”) that is open only to female applicants. This research examines university students’ attitude toward this girls’ quota, using anonymous online survey with 1,000 respondents, and generalized linear models. Previous research revealed three main mechanisms that explain public attitudes towards affirmative action: self-interest, system-justifying belief, and stereotyping. However, how these mechanisms relate with each other to result in certain policy attitudes has yet to be fully clarified. Therefore, we ask whether and how being female and majoring in the fields targeted by the policy change students’ attitude, and how and to what extent belief in meritocracy and hostile, benevolent, and modern sexisms predict students’ attitude. The results show that being female, belief in meritocracy, and benevolent sexism are positively associated with support for the girls’ quota. Majoring in science and engineering did not have strong effects. Although meritocracy predicted increase in benevolent sexism, benevolent sexism did not seem to account for the positive association between meritocracy and support for the policy. This research contributes to existing literature on public attitude toward affirmative action by suggesting that the mechanisms underlying the public attitude might vary in different sociocultural contexts. Specifically, unlike prior findings from Western contexts, meritocratic beliefs predict support for affirmative action in Japan. We argue that further research is required to explain the mechanism underlying this result.

Authors

• Reiko Naka, University of Chicago

• Hiromi Yokoyama, University of Tokyo

• Kazuo Yamaguchi, University of Chicago