Women in finance cut off from executive posts
Of 61 executives at 10 state-run financial institutions, Noh Jung-ran at the Korea Asset Management Corporation (Kamco) is the only female.
“Technically, women can get promoted to executive positions depending on merit, but in reality there are still certain barriers,” said Yang In-sook, a research fellow at the Korean Women’s Development Institute.
“To address this gender imbalance, and to strengthen women’s access to better jobs, [the government] needs to adopt measures such as imposing gender quotas for executive positions.”
Korea Enterprise Data and Korea Housing Finance proved the most female friendly as over one-third of their positions were filled by women, who made up 36.4 percent and 34.3 percent.
The situation is getting worse for women in the public financial sector as companies have been letting more of them go and increasingly filling new openings with men in the wake of the 2008 credit crunch, Yang added.
“Women are bearing the brunt of the economic downturn because companies favor male workers,” Yang said.
By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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