[K-Women Talk] Another Challenge Facing Korean Female Leaders

[Asia Economy] There is a female executive I met several years ago who remains close to me to this day. At our first meeting, she asked me how successful female executives manage their careers. I recalled many executives and outside director candidates from large corporations I had met over the years. Most of them were men. Despite handling numerous recruitment cases, I was quite surprised by the fact that there were not many memorable female executives. In the end, I could not provide a proper answer.

Five years later, earlier this year, I asked her a question first. I inquired who her current role model was and who her female mentor was. She said she ultimately could not find a female mentor or role model and rather felt that she wanted to become a reference for other female leaders, saying it seemed like a new challenge had arisen. Her answer sounded somewhat bittersweet.

The British current affairs weekly The Economist annually commemorates International Women's Day (March 8) by releasing the Glass-Ceiling Index for 29 out of 38 OECD member countries. Since 2013, The Economist has compiled this index by aggregating 10 indicators such as female labor force participation rate, proportion of female managers and executives in companies, parental leave status by gender, and gender wage gap. South Korea has ranked at the bottom for 10 consecutive years. This year, it was again at the lowest position. At this point, it might be fair to say that Korean women are not under a "glass ceiling" but rather a "bulletproof glass ceiling."

It is true that the situation is improving. Recently, with the rise of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management, interest in expanding female executives has increased. According to a survey conducted by Unico Search, where I work, as of the first quarter of this year, there were 399 female executives in the top 100 companies, surpassing 5% of all executives for the first time (outside directors were excluded from the survey, but owners were included). Compared to 322 last year, this is an increase of 77 (23.9%) in one year. This is a remarkable growth, but 399 female executives out of a total of 7,157 executives is still a negligible number. The glass ceiling in South Korea's large corporations remains solid.

Moreover, among the 399 female executives, only five were serving as board members. These included Lee Boo-jin, President of Hotel Shilla; Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver; Chae Sun-joo, Head of External/ESG Policy at Naver; Kim So-young, inside director at CJ CheilJedang; and Lim Sang-min, Executive Director at Daesang. Excluding owners, among the top 100 companies, Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, was the only executive holding a president-level or higher title including CEO.

Recent discussions on the importance and necessity of female leadership are understood beyond simple "discrimination" issues, extending to the "sustainability" dimension of companies and society. Female leaders are not created overnight. It typically takes more than 20 years to become an executive in a company. Generally, career cycles are not linear but curved. In these winding career cycles, next-generation female leader candidates are desperately searching for their own navigation, companions, and reference models.

Among OECD countries, South Korea, which has had the lowest glass-ceiling index for 10 years, expects female leaders not only to excel at their own work but also to become mentors and references for other women who are struggling alone somewhere. This should not be dismissed as merely an individual's ability or task. In today's situation, facing infinite competition and a demographic cliff, this is an urgent challenge that we must solve together, not just women alone.

Moon Seon-kyung, Executive Director, Unico Search

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