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順天堂大学の医学部入試で、女性が不利になるような基準で判定され不合格になったとして、受験した女性13人が大学側に賠償を求めた裁判で、東京地方裁判所は「性別だけで一律に不利益に扱う判定基準は不合理で差別的だ」として、大学側に合わせて800万円余りの支払いを命じる判決を言い渡しました。
In the Juntendou medical faculty entrance exam people are being judged using criteria which appear to cause women a disadvantage, and that make it so that this is a cause of failure ... (my TL attempt)

I'm just focusing on the part of sentence up to the second comma at the moment. The rest is included in case it affects that part.

I think になる is being used in a way I'm not familiar with. My literal reading of 女性が不利になる would be "women become a disadvantage". I guess, if I can read 不利 as both "disadvantage" and "disadvantaged" (women become disadvantaged), then this part on its own isn't a problem. But when I combine it with ような基準, this translation no longer works. I can only translate 女性が不利になるような基準 in an active sense: "Criteria which appear to cause a disadvantage to women". How should I break down the grammar of this part?

The second part, 不合格になったとして, is even more difficult for me. I must confess that I'm not at all sure what として does here, but my guess is that になる is being used the same way as the first part i.e. 不合格になったとして means "make it cause failure".

Please can you disentangle my faulty thinking?

Aside: I'm reading this last part as XがYとして where X is an implicit subject (the judging criteria). Could you please confirm if this is correct?

user3856370
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    You can see [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/11230/45489) for として. – sundowner May 22 '22 at 22:44
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    I see a problem in your understanding of ような. – aguijonazo May 23 '22 at 00:34
  • Sorry for piggybacking but what does 一律に mean in quote? – Jimmy Yang May 23 '22 at 03:13
  • @aguijonazo Yes, I wasn't happy about ような either. I couldn't see why it couldn't just be omitted. Can this be summarised in a comment or should I ask a separate question? – user3856370 May 23 '22 at 06:22
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    I suspect that you read that よう as in the example with 貪る in this [answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/93721/43676) of mine, and that was why you had to make 基準 the subject of なる. The clause ending with よう here is describing what end state the criteria are set to achieve. It’s the other よう. Not sure how best to translate it into English but it’s something like “such criteria by which women would become disadvantaged.” This way, you can understand なる as it is. – aguijonazo May 23 '22 at 07:41
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    Actually, this ような can be omitted, but that doesn’t make 基準 the subject of なる. In this case 女性が不利になる becomes what some people call a “gapless relative clause.” The meaning is basically the same. It still means “criteria by which …” – aguijonazo May 23 '22 at 07:41
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    @JimmyYang - That simply means "uniformly." – aguijonazo May 23 '22 at 07:44
  • @aguijonazo I know but I have no idea how this word can fit into this sentence "treat people unfavorably based on their gender." Where should I place "uniformly"? – Jimmy Yang May 23 '22 at 08:37
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    @JimmyYang - The unfavorable treatment is “uniform”, meaning it applies to all female applicants equally. It has a connotation of “mechanical” in the sense it doesn’t consider other conditions and treat all female applicants as a bunch. – aguijonazo May 23 '22 at 09:33

1 Answers1

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This 不利 (na-adjective) means "in a disadvantageous place", "at a disadvantage".

  • 女性は不利だ。
    Women are at a disadvantage.
  • 女性は不利になる。
    Women will be at a disadvantage.
  • 女性が不利になるような基準
    criteria where woman will be at a disadvantage
    → criteria that disadvantages women

This として is the te-form of とする, which in this context means "to claim/say". This is very common in news articles.

naruto
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  • Thanks. So 不合格になったとして means "...and claim that they got rejected"? – user3856370 May 23 '22 at 06:29
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    @user3856370 とする is taking everything before it. A literal translation would be "In the trial where 13 women sought compensation claiming {that, in Juntendo's entrance exam, they got judged and rejected based on criteria that disadvantaged women}, (the court ruled ...)" – naruto May 24 '22 at 13:12