Despite a slight increase in the number of female prosecutors over the last four years, only one in 10 chief prosecutor-level officials in South Korea is a woman, data from the Ministry of Justice showed Tuesday.
Of the 46 officials at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office level or higher as of September, just five were women, according to the data submitted to Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.
SPO-level prosecutors are the second highest rank in Korea's prosecutor hierarchy. Korea in 2004 abolished the chief prosecutor as a rank, though it still exists as an official position. SPO-level prosecutors are generally considered to be a level above deputy chief prosecutor-level officials.
Despite the severe lack of women's representation among the country’s highest-ranking prosecutors, the number of women in the profession has increased slightly in recent years.
Of the 2,132 prosecutors across the country as of September, 752 of them were women -- 35.3 percent. The figure has inched up every year since 32 percent in 2020.
The percentage of female prosecutors at the high prosecutors' office level -- from deputy chief prosecutors to deputy director prosecutors -- was 28.7 percent this year. This figure has also increased each year since 20.5 percent in 2021.
The fact that prosecutors in Korea's highest ranks are predominantly men is evidence that a glass ceiling exists for women in the field, Park said.
"The fewer women there are in high-ranking positions, the less sensitive the organization is to gender awareness... The prosecution and Justice Ministry should take special care that women are promoted to high-ranking posts," the lawmaker said.
