社説：女性候補 目くらましでは困る (朝日 2005/09/07朝刊)

社説：女性候補　目くらましでは困る (朝日 2005/09/07朝刊)

　国際政治学者にキャリア官僚、エコノミスト。自民党が公認した女性候補が連日メディアをにぎわしている。その多くは比例区との重複立候補で、名簿の上位に据えられた。

　自民党がいかにも女性を大切にしているように見えるが、それは錯覚だ。全部で３４６人の候補者のうち、女性はわずか２６人。社民党や共産党はもちろん、公明党や民主党よりも低い比率である。

　郵政民営化をめぐって注目度の高い選挙区に次々と女性を送り込んだ。それは小泉首相流の目くらまし作戦なのかもしれない。

　自民党のマニフェストからは、女性の社会での活躍を応援する政策も、男女平等を推し進める決意も伝わってこない。それどころか党内の改憲プロジェクトチームは去年、家庭の中の男女平等を定めた憲法２４条の見直しを打ち出し、多くの女性団体の反発を買った。

　性別にとらわれず、能力や個性を生かして社会を支え合う男女共同参画社会基本法を批判しているのは、ほかならぬ自民党の幹部だ。仕事を持つ女性が増えて、夫婦別姓を選べるよう望む声は切実だ。世論の後押しはあるが、自民党の壁が厚くいまだに実現しない。

　そんななかで小泉首相は次々に女性を閣僚に登用した。一方で、「女の涙は武器だから」などと平気で口にする。本気で仕事のパートナーと考えているのか疑わしい。

　女性を取り巻く現実は、きびしい。働く人は増えても、その多くが派遣やパートなど不安定な職だ。男性より少ない年金に老後の不安は募る。介護や育児のために職場を去る人がいる。共働きでも、家事や育児の大半を背負っている。

　華やかで有能そうな女性候補に、自分たちの抱えている悩みや不安をすくい取ってもらえるのかどうか。多くの女性はとまどっているに違いない。

　多様で豊かな社会を築くため、欧州の主な国々やカナダ、お隣の韓国では、一定比率で女性候補を割り当てる「クオータ制」や、比例名簿の順位を男女交互にするなどの手だてをとってきた。国造りにいそしむ多くの途上国もそうだ。

　日本はどうか。解散する前の衆議院で女性議員の割合は約７％。世界の１０１位という恥ずかしい低位にとどまっている。政権獲得をめざす民主党がクオータ制を採り入れていたら、もっと支持を広げられるのではないか。

　地盤、看板、かばんが物を言う政治風土を前にして、多くの女性は立候補さえおぼつかない。女性議員の数を増やすことは、国際社会で多くの役割を果たそうとする日本の課題でもある。

　自民党から立つ女性候補は、この党が持つ古い体質を覚悟しなければならない。強固な男性社会に飛び込んだ時、そこで力いっぱい戦うか、取り込まれてしまうのか。国民はそこを見ている。


EDITORIAL/ Female candidates
09/08/2005
--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 7(IHT/Asahi: September 8,2005)

The LDP's respect for women is nothing but an illusion.

With the Sept. 11 Lower House election drawing near, not a day goes by without the media fussing over high-profile female candidates anointed by the Liberal Democratic Party. Among them are an international politics scholar, a career bureaucrat and an economist. Most of these women are running simultaneously from single-seat constituencies as well as proportional representation districts, and are ranked high on the party roster for the latter.

If this gives the impression that the LDP honors and respects women, it is nothing but an illusion. Of the 346 candidates running on the party ticket, only 26 are women. The proportion is nowhere near the Social Democratic Party's or the Japanese Communist Party's, and even lower than that of New Komeito or Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan).

The LDP has picked high-profile women specifically for electorates where some of the party's most vocal opponents to postal privatization are running. This may well be a classic example of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's smoke and mirrors trick to distract the public. The party's manifesto is devoid of any program to support women's advancement in society, nor do we see any resolve to promote sexual equality.

The party's project team for constitutional amendment came under fire from many women's groups last year, when it insisted on revising Article 24 of the Constitution that provides for essential equality of the sexes in matters pertaining to marriage and family.

LDP executives continue to criticize the Basic Law for Gender-equal Society that calls for a society where members of both sexes are to be recognized for their abilities as individuals. With more women now in the work force, there is every reason to allow married couples to go by their own respective surnames. But even though public opinion has come to support this thinking, the LDP is still firmly entrenched against it.

Against this backdrop, Koizumi has been picking one woman after another for Cabinet posts. But it was also Koizumi who said mindlessly that a woman's tears are a weapon. We doubt Koizumi ever regards any woman as a real professional and an equal work partner.

The actual environment facing women is not easy. The ranks of working women have swollen, but many are holding unstable jobs as temporary help or part-time workers. The pensions they may receive will be smaller than men's, rendering their future uncertain and even scary. There are women giving up their jobs to raise children or to care for relatives. Even if they manage to hold on to their jobs as two-income families, most of the work around the house tends to fall on their shoulders.

Such women must be skeptical of receiving any empathy for their day-to-day troubles and worries from those glittering LDP women candidates, who have obviously attained professional heights few ever have and will.

To build a diverse society where both sexes can contribute, major European nations, Canada and South Korea have taken such "affirmative action" measures as setting a quota for female candidates and making sure women and men are equally represented on proportional representation rosters. The same is being done by many developing nations.

How about Japan? At the time of the dissolution, female members of the Lower House made up a mere 7 percent, which put Japan in a humiliating 101st place in the world. Perhaps Minshuto could be winning greater public support had it promised voters it was setting a quota for women candidates.

In this nation, where running for the political world means you already have a solid support base, name value and money, most women cannot even consider running for the election. But if Japan wants to contribute more to the international community, increasing the number of women legislators is an urgent task.

Any woman running on the LDP ticket should have no illusions about the party's pronouncedly backward nature. When joining an overwhelmingly male-dominated system, can a woman fight it with all her might, or will she be swallowed up to become a part of that system? Which will it be? Voters are watching.