Women account for 6% of executives at Korea's top firms, data shows

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Women account for 6% of executives at Korea's top firms, data shows

Published: 23 Nov. 2023, 09:49

KIM JU-YEON
kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr

Jobseekers fill out resumes at the Gyeonggi Women's Job Festa, a women's job fair, at Suwon Messe in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Monday. [YONHAP]

The proportion of women in executive positions at the top 100 companies in Korea reached the 6 percent mark for the first time ever this year, data showed Thursday.

According to data of the top 100 companies in sales compiled by global headhunter UnicoSearch, 439, or 6 percent, of the total of 7,345 executives were women as of the first half of this year.w

The executives included executive directors, members of the owner families and unregistered directors, but not outside directors.

The tally has continued to increase for five consecutive years, starting from 3.5 percent in 2019 to 4.1 percent in 2020, 4.8 percent in 2021 and 5.6 percent in 2022.

UnicoSearch said the total number of women executives at the 100 largest companies is expected to surpass the 500 mark around 2025, noting the number had stood at only 13 back in 2004.

This year, 72 out of the 100 companies had a woman in an executive position, with IT companies showing the highest rate of women executives at 39.2 percent.

However, companies in the shipbuilding, shipping, steel, energy and mechanics industries rarely had a woman in a leadership position.

By companies, Samsung Electronics had the biggest number of women executives at 72, followed by CJ Cheiljedang with 30, Naver with 26 and Hyundai Motor with 21.

Lotte Shopping, Amorepacific, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, Mirae Asset Securities, KT, SK Telecom and SK Holdings also had 10 or more women in executive positions.

Of the total women executives, eight were on the board of directors, including four CEOs, each at Korea Gas, LG H&H, Hotel Shilla and Naver.

BY KIM JU-YEON, YONHAP [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]