Korean women continue to be paid less than men despite improvements in their social standing.

A Statistics Korea report showed that the average salary of women stood at 67 percent that of men last year. While the figure is higher than that for 2009 ― when it was 66.5 percent ― it remains disparate from the rapid rise in women’s presence in universities, professional vocations and as successful applicants in state exams.

According to the report, last year the proportion of female students going on to universities outpaced that of male students for the second year.

Last year, 80.5 percent of female students went on to study at universities, while 77.6 percent of boys went on to higher education.

The proportion of those passing state exams for joining the civil service, diplomatic corps and the legal profession also remained high last year.

Of the successful applicants for the civil service examination, 47.7 percent were women, while those for the legal profession came in at 41.5 percent.

Along with the rise in the number of women passing the examination for joining the legal profession, the proportion of female lawyers, judges and public prosecutors also increased significantly.

The report showed that in 2009, 10.5 percent of the country’s lawyers were female, up more than fivefold from a decade ago.

The proportion of judges went from 6.3 percent to 22.8 percent over the same period, while that of public prosecutors went from 1.5 percent to 15.6 percent.

The proportion of women passing the examination for joining the diplomatic corps was the highest with 55.2 percent of those who passed the test this year being women.

In addition, the proportion of women with salaried jobs also overtook that of the men.

According to the report, 72.9 percent of the employed women had salaried jobs, while 70 percent of the working men held such jobs.

However, women were more likely to hold temporary posts or be hired on a day-to-day basis.

The report showed that only 34.5 percent of the women with paid jobs were employed on regular contracts, while 47.9 percent of the men with paid jobs were regular workers.

The report also showed that women had significant differences in their private lives and views according to marital status.

The Statistics Korea report showed that 68.5 percent of single women thought that household chores should be divided equally between men and women, while 64.1 percent of married women thought that women should be in charge of such chores.

However, married women were also more likely to feel stressed at home. Among married women 64.4 percent responded that their home life was stressful while 37.9 percent of the single women responded likewise.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)