Case study 15.3
In spite of uprising of movement of gender equality, there is still the existence of general gender difference. Although “the glass ceiling” is often used for a metaphor for the barrier of women leadership, the situations around female leadership is more complicated and rather use “the leadership labyrinth” (Northouse, 2019) . The barrier does not only happen when female leaders are going beyond certain higher-level positions but starts already from the very beginning of the steps.
Nowadays social situations have improved to actualize the gender equality more and more, even the term “gender” seems to just indicate the biological genetical sex categories (female and male) and the definition of gender itself does not mean psychological gender, the things related to marriage and pregnancy will be the last issue to be solved because biologically our role for reproduction never will be equal and only women can be pregnant and give birth.
Case study 15.3 reminds me of my own experience of marriage and pregnancy on the path of becoming a plastic surgeon. When I finished 2-year doctor residency and few months after I started to train for plastic surgery, my husband and I decided to get married. At that time, there were few female surgeons in Japan, most female doctors didn’t marry. I was the first person to get married during the training of becoming a specialist in my university hospital. The first words I could never forget or even I did not imagine when I reported to my professor about my decision were, “That will be a big trouble unless you make a contract not to have a child until you finish training.” As male doctors had no problem to celebrate their marriage. There was no celebration for me at all. The training of plastic surgeon was so tough that it was common that female surgeons in the past who discovered their pregnancy gave up their career. Plastic surgery is normally a very small department in the general hospitals and normally they foster only two positions in each hospital. In Japan, we do not have the system to hire a substitute doctor to cover the absence during someone’s maternity leave. It means each doctor’s responsibility is quite high. Also, Professors were not happy that they trained and taught female doctors to be a specialist, then they were pregnant female doctors quit and their teaching became nothing. I myself did not want to get behind the training and give up my pursuing the career, I promised not to have a child until I passed the exam of specialist with my boss. In fact, I kept a promise with them. It happened 15 years ago in Japan and the situations has been changing and is not as bad as 15 years ago.
I am impressed that Canada has a good system which both men and women can take maternity leave and ensure the salary too. For the barrier of pregnancy, first having a system which ensure that work will be covered with a substitute during absence and maternity leave will not influence the career. Furthermore, changing our mindset of not only men but women is important. The news that New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern took maternity leave became a big news this summer. She is not the first woman to take maternity leave while a prime minister. The incident become news means still this incident is unusual for people. We should construct the society where female leaders can take maternity leave without it being news. For prosperity of humanity, it is necessary for women to be comfortable to surely have the environment to be pregnant and raise children with support and without any barriers.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.