For Women Leaders in Korea, Gains but Miles to Go
Yanghee Kim
What is the current situation for Korean women in leadership? What strides have they made, what challenges do they face, what development needs do they have, and what needs to be done to promote the leadership role of women as the country goes forward?
Today for the first time Korean women are entering leadership positions in a variety of areas, including many that had been closed to them in the past. Noticeable change first began in the public sector during the democratic regime of former president Kim Dae-jung, from 1998 to 2002, and accelerated under the current government, headed by President Roh Moo-hyun.
The biggest surprise came when Roh nominated Kang Kum-sil as the first female minister of justice, in 2002. Law and justice had been, until then, very much a male preserve. At Seoul National University, for instance, despite the fact that the number of female students had steadily increased to almost 50 percent of the student body, there had not been a single female professor on the law faculty until 2004.
In her role as minister of justice from 2002 to 2003, Kang carried out successful reforms at the ministry as well as in the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, despite resistance from male judges and prosecutors who tried to protect the status quo. A savvy, articulate woman, Kang became very popular as a representative of a new type of leader, committed to her work but nonetheless warm and fun-loving. Most important, she showed authenticity, a rare quality among male leaders in the country.
Although women in Korea constitute 40.7 percent of the total labor force, they fill only 7 percent of managerial and executive posts.
Encouraged by Kang's good performance and the positive public reaction, Roh nominated many other women to be “firsts,” including the first female National Constitutional Court judge, the first female Supreme Court judge, and the first female minister of government legislation. Other firsts included the senior secretary to the president for public information; the adviser to the president on information, science, and technology; and an army brigadier general.