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Executive Summary for August 10th

In this week’s wrap of gender equality news: A Japanese university manipulated scores to exclude women, India measures unpaid care and the care cost of Brexit.

Published on Aug. 10, 2018 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Japanese Medical School Cut Women’s Test Scores

A medical school in Tokyo has been found to have manipulated entrance exam results to exclude women for at least a decade.

Tokyo Medical School, one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, has admitted that it inflated the scores of male applicants to ensure there were fewer female doctors in the country.

An internal investigation into corruption in admissions to the school found that as part of the process, which goes back to 2006, all exam scores were deflated by 20 percent. Examiners then added 20 points to the scores of all male applicants, as long as they had not failed the test more than four times in the past. Women were not given any extra points.

It’s thought the manipulation occurred due to worries about women dropping out of the profession to have families. The managing director of the school apologized for the wrongdoing at a news conference.

India to Measure Unpaid Care Work

The government of India is launching a survey that seeks to quantify the amount of unpaid care work undertaken in homes.

The time-use surveys will take a snapshot of the domestic work – cooking, cleaning and caring for family members, as well as fetching fuel and water – performed in households around the country. The surveys will kick off in January 2019, with results released in 2020. Officials say the survey will be repeated every three years.

The survey is expected to capture the extent of the unpaid care work done by women. Globally, women do 3.2 times more of this type of work than men. India has one of the lowest labor participation rates among women in the world, at just 29 percent compared to men’s 82 percent.

Brexit Could Lead to Care Crisis

The United Kingdom could face a shortfall of 28,000 care workers within five years of leaving the European Union, the Department of Health has warned.

Without taking measures to protect the jobs of the thousands of health and care workers from the European Economic Area who currently work for the National Health Service, the department warns, unpaid care work among families will skyrocket. This could have an effect on women’s labor force participation, as 60 percent of family carers are currently female.

“If we fail to meet social care needs adequately we are likely to see a decrease in labour market participation levels, especially among women, as greater numbers undertake informal care,” the report states.

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