66.8% of Companies with Total Assets Over 2 Trillion Have Female Executives... Female Executives Account for 4.5% of All Executives

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Surveys Gender Composition of Executives in 2,178 Listed Companies
Increase in New Female Executives Following Capital Law Amendments
Gender Gap Among Executives Over 7 Times Larger Than Among Employees

Survey results on the gender composition of executives in all listed companies that submitted business reports as of the first quarter of 2020 (Provided by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Among companies with total assets exceeding 2 trillion won, 6 out of 10 have appointed female executives. However, the proportion of female executives compared to the total number of executives is only 4.5%, indicating that there is still a long way to go.

On the 30th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family investigated the gender status of executives in 2,178 listed companies that submitted business reports for the first quarter. It was found that 720 companies had at least one female executive. This is an increase of 55 companies compared to the previous year, meaning that one out of every three listed companies has female executives.

Among these, for companies with total assets of 2 trillion won or more (147 companies), 66.7% (98 companies) had appointed female executives, an increase of 13 companies. The increase in the number of female executives in companies with total assets over 2 trillion won is due to Article 165-20 of the Act on Capital Market and Financial Investment Business, which states that the board of directors must not be composed entirely of one gender. As a result, 18 companies newly appointed female registered executives. This law was newly established in February this year and will be fully enforced from August 2022.

The survey results showed that the number of female executives is still absolutely low. Among the total executives (30,797), the proportion of female executives was 4.5% (1,395). This ratio was the same for companies with total assets of 2 trillion won, where out of 8,749 executives, 397 (4.5%) were female.

Moreover, among the total 408,336 female workers, only 1,395 were female executives, accounting for about 0.34%, whereas among 1,190,137 male workers, 29,402 were male executives (2.47%), showing a 7.3 times difference in ratio.

Park Jugeun, CEO Score CEO who conducted this survey, pointed out, "Although it is encouraging that this year showed the largest number of major companies appointing female executives since the survey began in 2012, the large gap between the number of executives and workers indicates that there are still many areas that need improvement."

Based on the results of this survey, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will hold a symposium at the National Assembly Members' Office Building today to strengthen the enforcement of the Capital Market Act. Minister Lee Jung-ok of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said, "We will continue to promote various measures to strengthen the enforcement of the law and expand public consensus so that the special provisions on the gender composition of the board of directors in the Capital Market Act can be well established in reality."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.