Advanced Industries Lacking Female Talent... Serious Gender Imbalance

Although women's economic participation is increasing, the proportion of female talent in high-growth and high-wage advanced industry sectors remains significantly low. The government considers the utilization of female talent in advanced industries as a crucial policy for securing global competitiveness and has begun preparing support measures to promote the employment of women.

Status of Science and Technology Research and Development Personnel by Gender (As of 2021)

On the 25th, an analysis of business reports from leading companies in semiconductor, display, and secondary battery (battery) sectors, classified as advanced strategic industries, revealed significant differences between male and female workforce and compensation. As of the end of last year, Samsung Electronics' semiconductor (DS) division had 51,205 male employees and 19,801 female employees, nearly a twofold difference. In 2013, ten years ago, Samsung Semiconductor had 28,044 male employees and 13,038 female employees. While the number of male workers increased by 82%, female workers grew by only 51%. Samsung Electronics is relatively better off in this regard.

SK Hynix, which focuses solely on the semiconductor business, also showed a twofold difference at the end of last year, with 21,126 male employees and 10,818 female employees. In 2013, there was little difference with 11,040 males and 9,716 females, but while the number of male employees doubled, the number of female employees barely increased. The average salary per person was 145.23 million KRW for men, compared to 112.48 million KRW for women, a difference of over 30 million KRW. This indicates that the higher the position with greater pay, the higher the proportion of men.

It is largely analyzed that the introduction of automation equipment such as robots has reduced the number of female workers on production lines. In electronics products like semiconductors, the proportion of women working on production lines was high due to the nature of the products. The industry required delicate and calm female workers. However, as machines took over simple repetitive tasks instead of humans, women's jobs drastically decreased. The relocation of production bases to countries like China and Vietnam is also considered one of the factors for the decline in female employees.

The gender ratio difference is even greater in the display and battery sectors.

LG Display's workforce structure consists of 24,472 men and 4,800 women, with men outnumbering women by about five times. The average length of service for women is less than 10 years. The average salary per person is 99 million KRW for men and 73 million KRW for women, a difference of 26 million KRW. The situation is similar in the battery sector. LG Energy Solution has 9,205 male employees, nearing 10,000, but only 1,875 female employees. The average salary per person is 105 million KRW for men and 71 million KRW for women.

Samsung SDI has 8,397 men and 1,507 women in the energy sector, and in the electronic materials sector, 1,628 men and 403 women, maintaining a male-dominated workforce structure. Due to the significant gender ratio difference in the number of employees, the proportion of female executives at higher ranks is inevitably low.

The proportion of women is also low in universities and research institutions, which are the breeding grounds for advanced industry talent.

According to the "Survey on the Utilization of Women in Science and Technology" published by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, as of the end of 2021, women accounted for only 21.8% of employees in science and engineering universities, public research institutions, and private company research centers. The proportion of women among research project leaders was also around 12%. However, the proportion of female engineering students is rapidly increasing, so if the government's support measures for female talent in advanced industries are implemented, the gender imbalance is likely to improve significantly. The proportion of female engineering students, which was only 1% in 1980, exceeded 10% in 1997 and now about one in four graduates is female.

In advanced industry fields, there is a growing call for government policies to increase the utilization of female talent, prevent the attrition of female professionals, and maintain their employment. The government plans to actively incorporate support measures for the growth of female talent?such as expanding women in science and engineering, fostering and utilizing female research and development (R&D) personnel, and re-employment of highly skilled women with career interruptions?into advanced industry talent development policies.

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