Poll shows women feel slighted by men at work

In a telephone survey of 676 female workers, 73.1 percent said they felt discriminated against because of their sex. The online job portal Saramin conducted the poll.
The most common form of discrimination was salary, cited by more than 52 percent of those polled. About 40 percent felt they were assigned work differently, and 34 percent complained about a glass ceiling. Other factors considered were unstable employment compared to men, sexual harassment and difficulty in receiving maternity and childcare leave.
Almost half said they considered quitting when they became pregnant because of pressure from companies to focus on childcare. More than 34 percent felt that the rise in female judges and in other important occupations were only stories in the media and not directly related to them.
“We have to admit that the work force quality, for instance education, was lower for women in the past,” said Choi Nam-yong, an analyst. “However, the number of females with degrees higher than bachelor’s has increased recently. They have not advanced to management-level positions, but once they do the trend on discrimination that women are complaining about will change.”
In a separate survey conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo of 2,011 job seekers, almost nine out of 10 who had never been employed before said they have experienced sickness caused by stress from not having a job. That was more common among women, at 76 percent, than among men, at 58 percent.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]