Gender differences in pharmacy professors in Japan and Korea

Gender disparities have been a significant issue in various professional fields in Japan and South Korea.^1,2 Both countries have a historical background shaped by Confucianism, which has influenced perspectives on gender inequality. The low proportion of female faculty members in universities has been a long-standing issue in both Japan and South Korea. Recent survey results indicated that the proportion of female faculty members decreases as academic rank increases in Japan.³ In order to expand women’s participation and promote diversity in all areas of society, the Japanese government launched the progressive initiative “Empowerment Network” in 2018.⁴ This initiative aimed to increase the percentage of women in leadership positions to at least 30% by 2020 across all sectors of society, including politics, national and local civil service, the private sector, education, and research. Similar efforts have been undertaken in South Korea.⁵

A major mission of university pharmacy schools is to train pharmacists. Previous studies show that there were a high proportion of female pharmacists and students in pharmacy departments of universities.^6,7 But there haven’t been any studies that have looked into whether there are gender differences among professors in pharmacy schools, whether there are more female professors at universities or laboratories, or whether there are more female professors at female universities.

In this study we investigate the gender differences among professors in pharmacy schools in Japan and Korea. The investigation was conducted based on public information (primarily from university websites). This study included 73 universities in Japan and 35 universities in South Korea as of November 2023 (Supplementary 1). Detailed method is described in Supplementary 2. There were 1965 professors at pharmacy schools were identified in Japan and South Korea. Of these, 1527 were from Japan and 438 were from South Korea (Table 1).

Table 1.

Gender distribution of pharmacy school professors in Japan and South Korea.

Classification	Japan					South Korea					Total
	Number of professors	Number of male professors	%	Number of female professors	%	Number of professors	Number of male professors	%	Number of female professors	%	Number of professors	Number of male professors	%	Number of female professors	%
Basic specialty	1185	1075	90.7%	110	9.3%	369	269	72.9%	100	27.1%	1554	1344	86.5%	210	13.5%
Clinical specialty	342	290	84.8%	52	15.2%	69	25	36.2%	44	63.8%	411	315	76.6%	96	23.4%
Basic specialty
Chemistry, physics, biology	784	717	91.5%	67	8.5%	238	185	77.7%	53	22.3%	1022	902	88.3%	120	11.7%
Hygiene	100	85	85.0%	15	15.0%	34	20	58.8%	14	41.2%	134	105	78.4%	29	21.6%
Pharmacology	126	114	90.5%	12	9.5%	30	19	63.3%	11	36.7%	156	133	85.3%	23	14.7%
Drugs	175	159	90.9%	16	9.1%	67	45	67.2%	22	32.8%	242	204	84.3%	38	15.7%
Clinical specialty
Disease and drug therapy	192	165	85.9%	27	14.1%	29	12	41.4%	17	58.6%	221	177	80.1%	44	19.9%
Laws, systems, and ethics	39	30	76.9%	9	23.1%	22	6	27.3%	16	72.7%	61	36	59.0%	25	41.0%
Clinical training	111	95	85.6%	16	14.4%	18	7	38.9%	11	61.1%	129	102	79.1%	27	20.9%
Founder
National university	333	313	94.0%	20	6.0%	143	99	69.2%	44	30.8%	476	412	86.6%	64	13.4%
Private university	1194	1023	85.7%	171	14.3%	295	195	66.1%	100	33.9%	1489	1218	81.8%	271	18.2%
Faculty composition
University	1307	1144	87.5%	163	12.5%	438	294	67.1%	144	32.9%	1745	1438	82.4%	307	17.6%
College	220	192	87.3%	28	12.7%	0	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	220	192	87.3%	28	12.7%
Location
Capital	640	543	84.8%	97	15.2%	237	162	68.4%	75	31.6%	877	705	80.4%	172	19.6%
Regional	887	793	89.4%	94	10.6%	201	132	65.7%	69	34.3%	1088	925	85.0%	163	15.0%
Gender of students
Co-ed	1438	1261	87.7%	177	12.3%	387	267	69.0%	120	31.0%	1825	1528	83.7%	297	16.3%
Women’s university	89	75	84.3%	14	15.7%	51	27	52.9%	24	47.1%	140	102	72.9%	38	27.1%
Total	1527	1336	87.5%	191	12.5%	438	294	67.1%	144	32.9%	1965	1630	83.0%	335	17.0%

In both countries, the number of female professors was low in pharmacy schools, with the proportion of female professors in Japan was 12.5% (191 of 1527), and 32.9% in South Korea (144 of 438). This pattern consistently existed in all research fields, including basic research (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Hygiene, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences) and clinical research (Pathology and Drug Therapy, Laws, Systems, and Ethics, and Clinical Training) (Table 1). In South Korea, 63.8% (44 of 69) of professors engaged in clinical research were female. Moreover, over 50% of professors in the fields of pathology and drug therapy, as well as in the areas of law, systems, ethics, and clinical training, were women in South Korea. While female professors constituted less than 50% across all specialties in Japan, with the highest proportion observed in the field of “laws, systems, and ethics,” which included 23.1% (9 of 39) of women. Furthermore, the gender disparities existed in different types of universities by considering founder, faculty composition, location, and gender of students in these two countries (Table 1). For instance, approximately half of the professors were female (47.1%, 24 out of 51) at women’s universities in South Korea, but none of universities including in this study in Japan had female professors exceeding 50%.

According to the 2024 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index,¹ Japan was ranked 118th and South Korea was ranked 100th. The greater gender disparity in Japan than in South Korea on the number of pharmacy school professors are consistent with the gender gap index. Women may require longer periods of leave from work due to marriage and childbirth, which may impede their career progression.² This could be one of the reasons for the lower number of women in the highest academic positions, such as professors. Previous statistics have shown that there are more female students and practitioners in pharmacy than their male counterparts,^6,7 In both Japan and Korea, clinical professors or professors majored in clinical research in pharmacy departments are required to have practical clinical experience, as opposed to continuing to conduct basic research at a university after graduation.⁸ Many professors may have acquired clinical experience in hospitals or pharmacies prior to returning to academia and many female researchers stay in practical clinical pharmacy and not move to academia as they don’t have role model or leader to inspire them. In conclusion, both Japan and South Korea exhibited gender disparity among professors in university pharmacy departments. It is essential to increase the representation of female professors and to promote female leadership within these departments in both countries.

Contributors

HM, HS, EH contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, literature search and data collection were performed by HS and EO. Analyses were performed by HS and MH. Funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, and resources were prepared by HM. All authors reviewed and commented on the drafted manuscript and all authors approved the final manuscript.

Declaration of interests

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.