Women account for exactly half of Korea’s 50 million people, according to government figures released last week, reaching the 50 percent mark for the first time since the national statistics office began compiling demographic data in 1970. The proportion of women in the population, which stood at 49.5 percent in 1980, rose to 49.9 percent in 2010.
The steady increase in women’s demographic weight reflects the disappearance of traditional preference for male offspring as well as longer female life expectancy. The number of boys born for every 100 girls, which exceeded 110 until a decade ago, has been down to 105.7 in the range of the natural ratio from 105 to 106.
In parallel with their rising population, Korean women have received more education and expanded their presence in various fields at a remarkable pace. Nearly 75 percent of girl graduates from high school entered college this year, with the corresponding ratio remaining at 68.6 percent for boys. Female presence in the legal and medical professions rose from 3 percent in 2001 and 13.6 percent in 1980 to 16.7 percent and 23 percent in 2011, respectively.
The Ministry of Security and Public Administration forecast last week that the number of female civil servants at central government agencies would surpass that of their male counterparts by 2015. President Park Geun-hye’s election last December as the nation’s first female leader was regarded as symbolic of the female empowerment underway in Korea.
It is a globally acknowledged notion that the 21st century will be led by women, whose ability to sympathize with others, along with their keen sense of fairness and justice, gives them advantage at a time when a more horizontal network is needed in the workplace. Regretful to say, but a broader look at the reality makes it hard to say Korea has been making a fundamental shift toward female empowerment.
Despite their high level of education, less than half of Korean women engaged in economic activities last year, with the corresponding ratio above 73 percent for men, according to figures from Statistics Korea. The lowest female labor-participation rate among the 34 OECD member states shows that it is far more difficult for women to balance work and family here than in other industrialized countries. About 2 percent of female employees, most of whom are in their 30s, quit their job every year due to marriage, pregnancy or childbirth.
The expanding female presence in professional fields may have to be understood as reflecting their wish to bypass the glass ceiling that is still hard to break in officialdom and at corporations. Currently, women occupy 7.3 percent of senior government posts and 2 percent of seats in corporate boardrooms.
President Park appears not to be free of criticism that she has not done enough to remove the glass ceiling, as she has filled only five of 72 ministerial and vice ministerial posts with women and has appointed no woman as one of her senior secretaries. She needs to lead the way in widening the career options for women by implementing her election pledge to set a female quota for managerial posts at government agencies and other public institutions.
It is mandatory to take more drastic and effective measures to expand female roles, which will be essential to enhancing ― or just maintaining ― the economic growth and competitiveness of the nation, which faces a sharp shrinkage in the working population due to a declining birthrate.
On women’s part, they may have to make more strenuous efforts to overcome their internal barriers such as self-doubt and passive attitude to pursue a successful career and eventually run half the country and companies.
