Women outperform men after Japan medical school stops rigging exam scores

Female students who sat the entrance exams at Tokyo’s Juntendo University had a pass rate of 8.28 per cent, compared with 7.72 per cent for their male counterparts
Juntendo attributed the results to its decision to ‘abolish the unfair treatment of female applicants’, after last year’s revelations it had been manipulating scores in favour of men

Women and gender

The Guardian

Published: 6:30pm, 19 Jun 2019

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Women have outperformed men in entrance examinations for a medical school in Japan that last year admitted rigging admission procedures to give men an unfair advantage.

Juntendo University in Tokyo said of the 1,679 women who took its medical school entrance exam earlier this year, 139 had passed, accounting for a pass rate of 8.28 per cent. The pass rate among its 2,202 male candidates was 7.72 per cent.

It was the first time in seven years that the pass rate among women was higher than among men, the Asahi newspaper reported.

The university attributed the exam results to its decision to “abolish the unfair treatment of female applicants” after last year’s revelations.

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Juntendo was one of several medical schools that were found to have manipulated exam results to give first-time male applicants an advantage over women and others who had previously failed the exam.

The dean of the medical school, Hiroyuki Daida, initially attempted to justify the practice, saying women matured faster than men and had better communication skills.

“In some ways, this was a measure designed to help male applicants,” he told reporters.

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The sexist admissions policy drew widespread criticism after the Yomiuri newspaper revealed last August that Tokyo Medical University had rigged exam scores for more than a decade to favour male candidates, citing concerns that women who went on to become doctors would leave the profession to have children.

Last month, the medical school said female applicants had performed slightly better than men this year after gender-based anomalies in the admissions procedure were removed.

The pass rate among women at Tokyo Medical University was 20.4 per cent, 0.4 percentage points higher than among male candidates, the institute said, according to the Japan Times. The success rate the previous year, when the discriminatory marking practice was still in place, was just 2.9 per cent for women and 9 per cent for men.

In 2016, women accounted for just 21.1 per cent of all doctors in Japan, the lowest level among nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Among G7 countries, Britain had the highest proportion, at 47.2 per cent, followed by Germany, France and Canada.

The medical school scandal reinforced claims of institutional sexism in the Japanese workplace and education, frustrating efforts by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to create a society “in which women can shine”.

While women’s representation in the workplace is rising, Japan compares poorly with other countries in promoting women to senior positions. Many female employees face discrimination when trying to return to work after giving birth.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Women outperform men after medical school stops rigging entrance test scores

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