What Do Gender Equality Law and Policies Mean to Me? Japanese Women Making Sense of Lived Experience As They Watch Television Dramas About Women

The lack of women in core positions and political ranks, and the unequal treatment of men and women due to gender imparity continuously push Japan's rank down on the Global Gender Gap Report list. Despite the enacted laws and action plans by the government, the country still faces difficulties in achieving its goals to enable women economically, socially, and politically and to establish a gender-equal society for both genders. To support this development, the media has produced television dramas that focus on female characters and new plots. Past studies have focused almost exclusively on the representation of women and/or gender in television dramas. Thus, borrowing the phenomenological lens, this paper sought to advance our understanding of the meaning of the gender equality laws to Japanese women as they watch television dramas about women. Five working Japanese women agreed to participate in this study. The data collected through narrative in-depth interviews was analyzed using the Modified Van Kaam Method. Two central themes that describe the essence of the meaning-making system of the participants became clear: Women are Outside the Circle of Gender Equality and What Women Want: Commitment and Change. Upon further review, two subthemes emerged under theme 1: Not Me: "I have never and will never experience that"; and To Be in a Leadership Position, a Woman Must Be a Man: "Now, I have so much work like my husband". Theme 2 has one sub-theme: No gender equality at home, no gender equality at work: "My father decided that set-up, but my husband sees me as his equal and treats his staff equally".