More women in corporate leadership roles in Korea

Home > Business > Industry

print dictionary print

More women in corporate leadership roles in Korea

Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver [NAVER]

Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver [NAVER]

 
More women are taking up leadership roles at Korean corporations, according to a new survey.
 
Of the 100 companies surveyed by UnicoSearch, a headhunting firm, 5.6 percent of leadership positions were held by women. This is the first time the 5-percent mark has been broken.
 
The results were released Wednesday.
 
Leadership roles were broadly defined and include executives, directors and large shareholders with significant influence over the companies but without jobs or board positions.  
 
The total was 114 in 2013, 216 in 2018, 322 last year and currently stands at 399.  
 
The ratio was 3.5 percent in 2019 to 4.1 percent in 2020 and then to 4.8 percent in 2021.  
 
Among the 100 companies, 70 companies had at least one female leader as of the first quarter. The number stood at 10 in 2004, which gradually rose to 55 in 2018.
 
Among the 399 women, 79.7 percent were born after 1970, with 36.3 percent of them born between 1970 and 1973. Those who were born after 1980 reached 28, a rise from last year's 18.
 
By company, Samsung Electronics had the most women in leadership roles, 65 in the first quarter. CJ CheilJedang (30), Hyundai Motor (18), and Lotte Shopping (15) followed.  
 
CJ CheilJedang had the highest percentage of women in leadership roles, at 26.1 percent of all top positions, followed by Amorepacific's 22.6 percent and Naver's 16.8 percent.
 
At Samsung Electronics, only 5.9 percent of top posts were held by women.
 
According to the report, only five out of 399 women were serving as directors. Those five include Lee Boo-jin, the chief executive of Hotel Shilla, Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, Chae Sun-joo, chief communication officer of Naver, Kim So-young, director of CJ CheilJedang and Lim Sang-min, executive director of Daesang.  
 
Lee Young-hee, the vice president of Samsung Electronics [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Lee Young-hee, the vice president of Samsung Electronics [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

 
For vice presidents, the figure amounted to 27, where 14 of them were working at Samsung Electronics. Lee Young-hee, the vice president of Samsung Electronics, has been an executive for 15 years.  
 
"The new law that listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) or more should appoint at least one woman director is enforced starting August," said Kim Hye-yang, CEO of UnicoSearch.
 
"The number of women executives is expected to rise further."
 
 
 

BY LEE DONG-HYUN [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)