Support for Female Researchers on Campus Raising Children

2024年4月19日更新

The University has been supporting the research activities of female researchers since FY2009 by providing research assistants to female researchers who are raising children.

Requirements for Applicants

Applicants who fulfill the requirements are qualified to be considered.

Full-time female faculty members (professor, associate professor, lecturer, assistant professor (including specially-appointed professors)) affiliated with the University who are conducting excellent research, and the following are also eligible:
1) Currently pregnant and planning to raise a child during the current fiscal year (support will be provided after maternity/paternity leave), or raising a child under the third grade of elementary school.
2) Engaged in research that requires laboratory experiments, field surveys or other research methods.

Support Period

From 1st April of the fiscal year to 31 March, starting from the day the applicant fulfills the requirements for support eligibility.
(If the applicant no longer meets the eligibility requirements during the support period, the support will be provided until the following month)

Support Details

The number of recipients is expected to be about 3.
Assign assistants to support the research activities of the recipients from various perspectives, including technical and office work.
Support hours will be based on approximately 12 hours per week (6 hours per day, 2 days per week), with the upper limit determined by the age of the child (the youngest child).
The maximum support hours will be capped as follows
(1) Taking care of a preschool child
　　Maximum of 29 hours per week (5 to 6 hours per day, 5 days per week support) as needed
(2) Taking care of a child in the first through third grades of elementary school
　　Up to 24 hours per week as needed (6 hours per day, 4 days per week)
If there are too many applicants, the number of hours of support will be determined by screening.
Assistant types may be one or both of the following
(a) Academic Assistant (AA)
　　Hired as an Academic Assistant at the University. Assistants will be covered by workers' compensation insurance and will be reimbursed for travel expenses.
(b) Research Assistance and Documentation (Part-time)
　　No employment relationship with the University. The assistant will not be provided with transportation expenses or workers' accident compensation insurance.
In principle, assistants must be recruited by the recipients themselves (consultation is available at the Ochadai Jinzai Bank (Ochanomizu University Talent Pool) , which is under the jurisdiction of the Institute for Global Leadership).

Support Outcomes

FY2023	4
FY2022	2
FY2021	3
FY2020	5
FY2019	3

The outcomes of previous support

Support Effects (FY2022)

1) Degree of Improvements in Problems

Users were asked to list about five difficulties or problems in their work (research, education, other) or child-rearing, and to indicate the degree of improvement by using a 3-point scale: "improved," "slightly improved," and "unimproved”.
Among the difficulties and problems of the respondents, those that "improved" were: (1) by requesting assistants to perform clerical work, they were able to spend more time on research, teaching students, preparing for classes, and so on when they were at university; (2) in case of children's sudden illness, they were able to make work requests by phone or e-mail and proceed with their scheduled work; (3) with assistants' support, they were able to submit papers and prepare reports. The support of assistants facilitated the smooth preparation of documents for paper submission and report writing.
Those who selected "slightly improved" reflected that their research assistants helped them with research and analysis of previous studies when planning their research and writing their submitted papers. Those who chose 'unimproved' were those who had just started a new research project and methodology. They responded that returning to their prenatal condition after having been granted nine months of parental maternity leave was difficult and hard to improve.

2) Degree of Goal Achievement

Respondents were asked to list up to five goals for FY2022, and to indicate the degree to which they had achieved them using a three-point scale: "achieved," "slightly achieved," and "not achieved".
Among the "achieved" item, those listed as accomplishments were organizing data for submitting articles, publication, and responding to changes in children's lives.
In the "slightly achieved" item, application for external funding was mentioned. As the reason, the respondents indicated that they had planned to apply for multiple applications, but were only able to apply for one. Similarly, respondents indicated that because the 0-year-olds were in daycare for a short amount of time and did not have enough time to spend with the student teaching. None of the recipients wrote in the "not achieved" item.

3)Support Effects

The respondents were asked to answer freely what effects they obtained from the support provided by this program in FY2022.
Both recipients stated that the work of the support assistants was carried out without a hitch, and that the support of the assistants had a great impact on maintaining their research skills both directly and indirectly, for example, by checking writing instructions for article submissions, checking for careless mistakes, assisting in the preparation of figures and tables, and having them proceed with data analysis and discussion and summarize the results.
The respondents also commented that their assistants' support had a significant direct and indirect impact on maintaining their research skills. The respondents who experienced changes in their living environment, such as their children entering kindergarten or moving home, also stated that the assistance enabled them to proceed with their research at a steady pace. Although the research activities were maintained through personal support, long-term, ongoing support is necessary to balance research and personal life in the face of environmental changes.

PROMOTION OF DIVERSITY MENU