Seven percent of executives at Korea's top firms now women, report says

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

The proportion of women executives rose to 7 percent in the first quarter of this year, following the implementation of a revised Capital Markets Act that banned a single-gender composition of a company board in August last year.

The number of women executives at 349 out of the country's top 500 firms by sales reached 997 at the end of March, accounting for 6.8 percent of the total 14,718, according to the Leaders Index.

The proportion was up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier and 1.7 times the tally for the first quarter of 2019.

Yet, nearly 28 percent, or 98, of the 349 companies had no women executives.

The number of outside directors climbed 9.8 percent on-year to 212 over the one-year period, while that of internal directors edged up two to 30.

The gain in the number of women with C-suite positions came as a revised capital market law came into effect in August last year, putting restrictions on men-dominated boards of firms with assets of 2 trillion won ($1.51 billion) or more.

Gaming firm Krafton had the highest proportion of women executives at 57.1 percent, with them occupying four out of seven C-suite seats.

Kakao came next with 50 percent, trailed by the state-run Korea Gas Corporation with 45.5 percent and refiner SK Innovation with 42.9 percent.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]