DUAL EFFORTS

Promoting women to leadership in Korea will require two main efforts—in policies and in training and development.

Policies that strengthen the mandates for maternity and parental leave, flexible work hours, and the reform of HR practices to eradicate discrimination are needed alongside affirmative action programs such as quota systems. Best practice in Scandinavian countries has shown that these policies are the key to increasing the number of women in leadership positions.

Because of the scarcity of leadership development opportunities for women in Korea, chances are that the majority of current women leaders have not had formal leadership training. They lack confidence in their leadership and are not sure of how to deal with their gender identity. Research has shown that whereas male managers tend to think that female traits (such as an interpersonal orientation) are advantages for women managers, women think they are disadvantages. Therefore opportunities for training and developmental relationships and other initiatives that support empowering women leaders are necessary.

At the same time, these two efforts need to be backed up by more-active advocacy of the business case for diversity.