Korea's gender equality index improves, but glaring gaps remain

Women protesters demand the Busan city government withdraw cuts to funding for gender equality on March 8, or International Women’s Day, in front of the city hall in Busan. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Gender disparities in Korea are widest in decision-making authority and narrowest in access to education and health care, the Gender Ministry said Friday.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the same day announced its annual gender gap index for 2022, adding that the general score climbed compared to the previous year, indicating greater equality.

The general score for 2022 was 65.7, up 0.2 points from the previous year’s 65.5, based on the ministry's newly revamped grading scheme.

A score of 100 represents complete equality between genders — where men and women hold equal power. A score of zero means the opposite — one gender dominates the other.

The gender equality index measures the gap between men and women across three goals — equal authority, equal access to resources and equal relationships — along with seven areas and 23 indicators.

Of the seven grading areas, decision-making authority and parenting demonstrated the worst gender imbalances, scoring 30.7 and 31.4, respectively.

Specifically, the yearly score of decision-making authority dropped from 34.1 in 2021 to 30.7 in 2022 because the sub-categorial score based on the ratio of female ministers nearly halved from 38.5 to 20.

Another sub-score calculating the ratio of women in managerial positions slid from 25.8 to 22.5.

The parenting score did not change. This means there was no improvement or deterioration in gender disparities in sub-criteria such as domestic labor, childcare or care for older adults in the family.

Education and health care were the only categories that achieved scores of 90 or more. Korean men and women have nearly the same level of access to learning opportunities and life expectancy.

In detail, the education category's sub-score of average learning years increased from 90.6 in 2021 to 90.9 in 2022, a 0.3-point rise. Scores for sub-categorical indexes under health care remained the same in both years.

Awareness of gender equality was the second runner-up, recording a grade of 80, rising by 1.1 points compared to the previous year, 2021. Its subscore on awareness of women’s rights improved from 82.7 to 84.6 over a year.

The income category ranked fourth with a score of 78.5. The ministry noted that a sub-criterion, the labor income disparity between Korean men and women, improved by 3.4 points to 70. The other sub-indicator showed that more women had become beneficiaries of national pensions between 2021 and 2022.

The fifth from the top was employment, which recorded a score of 74, a one-point increase from the previous year’s score. Four sub-categorical indexes — employment rate, the ratio of women holding permanent positions, gender-based occupational segregation and gender-based career interruptions — improved compared to 2021.

The index also analyzed gender equality by region.

Seoul, Gwangju, Daejeon, Sejong, and Jeju were among the top five localities with the highest levels of gender equality.

Busan, Daegu, Gyeonggi, South Chungcheong, Incheon, Ulsan, North Jeolla and Gangwon posted more mediocre scores.

The ministry said North Chungcheong, South Jeolla and the Gyeongsang provinces achieved the lowest gender equality scores.

The national gender equality index has been on an upward trend over the past six years.

Based on the old grading scheme, the annual index recorded 72 in 2017, 73.1 in 2018, 73.9 in 2019, 74.9 in 2020, 75.4 in 2021 and 76 in 2022.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]