When we thought we had seen everything about gender inequality in academia, humanity shows us that there is still a lot to fight for. In Japan, a university reduced, for about ten years, the grades obtained by women in the entrance exams for Medicine under the pretext that they could leave the career early by having children.
The practice was provided by tokyo university of medicine and was denounced by an investigative commission in the first week of August. Under persistent denials by the institution, the authorities stress that the acts consist of a serious act of discrimination.
see more
IBGE opens 148 vacancies for Census Research Agent; see how…
Published law establishing the 'Program for the Acquisition of…
The case came to light when an internal investigation was launched after allegations of corruption in the test. From the examination of a candidate who happens to be the son of a Ministry of Education official, it was concluded that his and other candidates' grades were deliberately raised.
In some cases, the difference between the actual score and the one presented reached 49 points. The research group pointed out that the manipulation was aimed at reducing the number of women accepted under the justification that, by having children, they could leave the career earlier than the men.
The analysis of all results showed that male grades, even those who failed up to two exams, were improved while women and men who failed three times were not. According to lawyers, there is still no exact number of affected women.
However, the group claims that the university persisted in the practice for at least ten years. “Through deceptive recruitment procedures, they tried to mislead applicants, their families, school authorities and society as a whole," said Kenji Nakai, a lawyer who participated in the investigations.
What about the University of Tokyo? Faced with all the complaints, the institution's academic authorities apologized and promised possible compensation. However, they did not confirm whether they were aware of banknote manipulations during the years they occurred.
