Equal Employment Opportunity Act and work-life balance: do work-family balance policies contribute to achieving gender equality?

This paper has two objectives. One is to clarify the aims of the government’s formulation of policies concerning work-life balance after the Equality Act entered into force and the intentions of companies in introducing systems relating to work-life balance; the other is to consider whether or not policies concerning work-life balance have had any effect on women’s participation in the labor market, using both macro- and micro-level data to examine this question. As a result, the following has become clear. Firstly, the government’s main measures to promote a better work-life balance were implemented as measures to counter the declining birth rate. The vast majority of companies provide support for achieving compatibility between work and child rearing as part of their efforts to make a contribution to society.

However, around two-thirds of companies have implemented measures to support achieving compatibility between work and family with the expectation that this will improve the motivation of female workers and increase their retention within the company. Secondly, over the last 20 years, the female attrition rate due to marriage has declined considerably and the level of female retention, as seen in terms of the proportion of women among long-standing staff members, has increased. At the same time, women’s relative wage has also risen. Moreover, since 2000, the employment rate among women with preschool-age children has risen, as has the proportion of female managers. However, the rise in the relative wage of women is very sluggish. Thirdly, comparing individual companies, the more assiduous the senior management at a company is about measures to promote a better work-life balance, the higher the level of female retention, and the higher the level of female retention, the more successful women are in a company.

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