Glass ceiling still thick in South Korea
The number of women at work is up, the overall female employment rate is about 10 per cent less than the global average
By Yoon Ja-young
One out of four workers at South Korea’s conglomerates is a woman, but the glass ceiling still seems to be thick, as Korea recently fell in female employment numbers with figures far below the average of developed countries.
According to the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), 24 out of 100 employees at the country’s top 600 companies were women, as of 2017, following its analysis of non-financial companies listed on the stock market. Among the 1.13 million total employees hired by the businesses, women accounted for 23.7 per cent, inching up from 22.9 per cent in 2013.
The ratio of women was especially high in the wholesale and retail industries at 57.6 per cent. Arts, sports and leisure related services companies also had women as 41.3 per cent of their workforce.
Hyosung ITX had the highest ratio of female employees at 83.5 per cent, followed by education services company Woongjin Think Big, KT CS, KTIS and Shinsegae International.
While the ratio of female workers has inched up during the past five years at conglomerates, which is meaningful when considering that they are preferred workplaces, the overall female employment rate was 58.4 per cent in 2016, far lower than the average 67.8 per cent of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.