Rep. Lee Hyung-seok: "Moon Jae-in Government's Public Service 'Yeopungdangdang' Managerial Level Is a 'Mipu'"

Female Ministers at 33%, Highest in History... Central Government Female Civil Servant Managers Only 18%

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been revealed that a strong wave of female influence is sweeping through the public service sector under the Moon Jae-in administration. However, the overall proportion of female managers in government ministries has not kept pace with this trend.

According to an analysis of civil servant appointment status, female manager appointment targets, and Statistics Korea data submitted by the Ministry of Personnel Management to Rep. Lee Hyung-seok (Democratic Party·Gwangju Buk-gu Eul), the proportion of female ministers under the Moon Jae-in administration was 33.3%, the highest among all past governments.

The proportion of female ministers, which was 12.5% in 2010, increased by nearly 20 percentage points over ten years.

Additionally, the proportion of women among newly appointed civil servants has been exceeding 50% annually.

However, the proportion of female civil servants at the managerial level remains around 20%.

The Moon Jae-in administration set expanding women's participation in the public sector as one of its national agenda items and has been promoting a female manager appointment target system since 2018. This system distinguishes between senior civil servants with substantial decision-making authority (levels 1 and 2) and department heads at headquarters (levels 3 and 4), and evaluates the performance accordingly.

Looking at the results, the proportion of female senior civil servants (levels 1 and 2) in 2019 met the target but was only 7.9%, below 10%.

The proportion of female department heads (levels 3 and 4) at headquarters, including central ministries and government committees, was 20.8%, barely exceeding 20% for the first time since 2016.

The proportion of female managers at level 4 or higher in central ministries (including 18 ministries and some offices, agencies, and committees, totaling 44 institutions as of 2019) increased from 13.5% in 2016 to 18% in 2019, a 4.5 percentage point rise, but still did not surpass 20%.

This is very low considering that the average proportion of female successful candidates for level 5 civil servant exams from 2016 to 2019 was 37.5%. The yearly figures were 34.6% in 2016, 40.5% in 2017, 36.7% in 2018, and 38.1% in 2019.

Since the launch of the Moon Jae-in administration, efforts to strengthen female representation in the public service have continued, and the proportion of female ministers appointed by the president reached an all-time high.

These efforts seem to be gradually bearing fruit in the civil service as well, but there is still a long way to go.

Rep. Lee Hyung-seok said, “It is encouraging that the government's national agenda of realizing substantive gender equality has achieved certain results, but the proportion of female managers in central ministries still falls short of 20%. We need to reflect on the reality that the glass ceiling in the civil service is more entrenched compared to appointed ministers and consider ways to further advance this.”

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