While female students represent more than half of the population in Japanese and UK higher education, the gender representation varies considerably across subject areas. In the UK we hear frequently about initiatives encouraging women into STEM, accompanied by a slow rise in female representation in related subjects. Yet, there are further areas outside STEM where gender equality is not in sight, and women continue to lag significantly behind men in economics in most advanced economies, including Japan and the UK.

This talk will focus primarily on women’s under-representation in social sciences and economics, albeit with some differences in the definition and representation within these broad subject areas between Japan and the UK. The reason why such under-representation matters is the resulting focus of social science research, along with economic policies oblivious to gender differentiated outcomes.

The lecture Dr Liliana Harding will underline the importance of a balanced economic perspective acknowledging human needs, and the significance of work-life balance. She will reflect on comparative data from the UK and Japan, reasoning that general access to education, while desirable, is not the end of the road to meet societal needs and fair economic outcomes. To achieve gender balance in the economy we need to acknowledge the unique challenges faced by women in employing their skills and advancing their careers, while navigating an unequal division of family responsibilities

Liliana Harding is Associate Profession in Economics at the University of East Anglia, UK.  She has been a visiting associate professor at Tohoku University and a member of the steering committee for the ‘Equality Diversity and Inclusion’ international collaborative project at Ochanomizu University, Japan.  Her research focuses on economic education, along with migration and international student mobility, and she is responsible for student exchanges between her current department and global partners around the world. Within her research she is increasingly focussed on the role of gender in comparative economic systems, looking for further collaborative work in this sense with Japan.

Liliana has furthered international relations throughout her career, including as a first diplomatic representative of Romania in Scotland, and working within the Directorate of Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission. She is also keen to use insights from economics to acknowledge the value of public art and culture, recently having acted as an academic advisor to the 2023 European Capital of Culture project.  She is keen to extend similar work to the context of the Japanese economy.

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

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