Executive Director Choi Hee-nam of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a column he contributed to the Korea Economic Daily’s Sept. 26 issue, entitled, “Glass Ceiling, Is Not To Be Broken, But Removed,” pointed out the problems associated with the low economic activities for women in Korea, calling for the complete removal of the glass ceiling, the invisible segregation that women experience on their jobs. He suggested tasks to go about it based on her experience.
He went on to note also that the Economist has been announcing the Glass Ceiling Index since 2013, to rank countries in providing an equal footing for men and women in the labor market.
The index was made by measuring such factors as college education, labor market participation, salaries, education expenses for children, paternity leave, and the level of jobs inside companies.
He compared college education for women to men in Korea, which is 7.2 percent higher for men, noting that women in OECD countries were 5.3 percent more educated than men on average.
Choi also noted that salaries for women in Korea were 37 percent lower compared to those for men in Korea, while the OECD average was 15 percent less for women.
He also said only 2.4 percent of the executives were women in Korea against 17 percent in OECD countries, the lowest among 29 member countries in the past five years in a row. The difference between men and women varies depending on countries, as they are related to national culture and the views on values, especially, the men-oriented corporate personnel systems based on the age-old family patriarch system handed down for many centuries that has women in charge of homes and raising children, leaving not much room for women for economic activities.
He said the governments have the responsibility to support and reform the situation through diverse policies. Many statistics support giving more room for women to contribute to the economic activities. They showed that if given equal opportunities for women to work like men, the U.S. GDP will expand 9 percent more while its 12 percent for Japan, solving the aging problems for the workforce around the world. If various problems were solved in Korea, the country would have 8 percent more women coming into the labor market, reducing the difference in the job situation for men and women by 33 percent, he said.
He also noted that the progress in technology affecting the economic structure would also give more jobs for women, especially in the service area like medicine and cultural and other related sectors including health care service. The digitalization also would give more job opportunities for women as it will reduce the physical labor related jobs and change the male dominated corporate culture.
An IMF study showed that as more women manage important positions at financial institutions, the less the number of defaults at those institutions, boosting the security of those institutions, the IMF director said. Contrary to the general view that the birth rate would be downed as more women participate in the labor market, the birth rate increased as much as the rate of increase in women getting jobs in northern European countries with more financial support going to such areas as childcare facilities, paternity leaves and rearrangement of office hours, among others.
He said the government can help more women to participate in the labor market by appropriate management of welfare funds, retirement funds and tax systems the payment of welfare funds should be weighed against women picking up paychecks at jobs to save tax money going to welfare funds.
