South Korea has come up with an original way of addressing gender disparity in the workforce. The country is set to publicly name and shame companies with low levels of female employment, as the country’s first female President looks to boost an additional 1.65 million jobs for women.
With an ageing population threatening South Korea’s economic growth and a World Economic Forum (WEF ranking of 111 (out of 136 countries) on the “gender gap index”, President Park Geun-Hye and a number of ministries pledged last week to increase the female employment rate to 61.9%, an increase from 53.3% before the end of her term in 2018.
With the help of the minister for gender equality, Cho Yoon-Sun, the government will seek to end the male-dominated workforce practices, with the announcement that it will facilitate the workforce growth of women by publicly naming and shaming companies that don’t do enough to to tackle gender diversity, or those that employ at least 500 workers and a female share of the workforce that’s less than 70% of their industry’s average for three consecutive years.
While women account for 42% of total government jobs and hold more advanced degrees than men, they only hold 3.2% of all senior government positions and earn only about 69% of what their male co-workers earn. Park has previously said that increasing female employment was among the “most critical” items on her agenda.
Child-rearing in South Korea is still viewed as a predominantly female job and many women are leaving the workforce mid-career to raise their families and finding it hard to reenter the workforce. In an interview with WSJ Cho pointed to the unfeasable working hours as a major cause of work/life imbalance for South Korean women.
“Koreans work for too long every day. In 2011, they worked an average of 2,116 hours, much higher than the 1,652-hour average of the OECD. That forces mothers to quit their jobs as they are unable to take care of their children,” she said.
Additional steps taken to increase employment for women include increasing childcare subsidies for working parents and preferential treatment for “family friendly” companies seeking government contracts, encouraging more flexible working hours and improved training for mothers who are looking to re-enter the workforce. More details of the scheme will be announced in December.
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