Female Recruitment 'Fail' Government-Funded Research Institutes "Preferential Evaluation and Securing Human Diversity"

On the 27th, 'Women in Science and Technology Work-Family Balance Culture Expansion Practice Task Sharing Presentation' Held
Sharing Solutions to Career Interruption Issues for Female Researchers

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Government-funded research institutes with poor records in hiring women held a collective "reflection meeting" on the 27th. The participating institutions announced improvement measures, including giving preferential treatment in work evaluations for a certain period to researchers returning from parental leave to balance work and family life. The event attracted more attention as it took place shortly after the Ministry of Science and ICT appointed its first female head.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, on the afternoon of the 27th, 10 out of 25 government-funded research institutes with low female employment rates gathered at the auditorium of the National Research Foundation (NRF) building in Seoul to hold the "Sharing Presentation on the Practice Tasks for Spreading a Work-Family Balance Culture for Women in Science and Technology."

This event was held as part of the Ministry of Science and ICT's efforts to address the career discontinuity issues faced by female researchers. Since March, the ministry has urged these 10 institutions to diagnose problems and establish countermeasures, and the meeting was organized to review the "results." The 10 research institutes targeted are those with female researcher employment rates below 30% and an increase trend of less than 5% over the past seven years. These include the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the Korea Basic Science Institute, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), the Korea Railroad Research Institute, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

The participating institutions reviewed their improvement achievements and listened to case presentations from three organizations: KIST, ETRI, and KARI. KIST decided to increase the retention rate of female researchers and provide benefits in the research evaluation system for researchers returning from parental leave to support work-family balance. Specifically, since researchers returning from parental leave may have lower evaluations due to the inability to produce quantitative results in a short time, this will be addressed.

ETRI announced plans to establish counseling programs to help employees returning from parental leave adapt smoothly. They will also implement pre-return coordination interviews with HR personnel and department heads, and provide internal news channels during the leave period.

KARI, considering its low female managerial ratio (2.4%) compared to other institutions and the low participation of women (4.5%) in various committees (personnel, recruitment), announced it would prepare "drastic measures." They plan to increase the proportion of women in managerial positions by raising female representation in personnel and recruitment committees, thereby securing human diversity.

At the event, the heads and presenters of the participating research institutes chanted the slogan, "We will practice creating a work-family balance culture in science and technology research institutions!" Yong Hong-taek, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Despite the government's efforts to foster and support women in science and technology, many female researchers in the field still face significant challenges such as childbirth and childcare burdens and glass ceilings. Given that the recent Korea-US summit also mentioned expanding exchanges of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) professionals and enhancing women's capabilities, it is very important to strengthen research capabilities by creating an environment that encourages women's participation in research and development."

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