[2025 Women's Forum] Top 3 Companies for Women to Work: "Kakao, CJ ENM, Naver"

The 10th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards Ceremony

At the 10th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards, Kakao (Ministry of Employment and Labor Award), CJ ENM (Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Award), and Naver (Seoul Metropolitan Government Award) were honored with the Grand Prize. Hana Card (Leadership Development), KT (Family-Friendly), and KB Kookmin Bank (Employment Stability) each received the CEO Award from The Asia Business Daily.

Jang Beomsik, CEO of The Asia Business Daily (third from left), along with the awardees, is performing the Compass Ceremony at the 10th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards Ceremony hosted by The Asia Business Daily on the 6th at Lotte Hotel, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

The three companies that received the Grand Prize were highly praised for operating robust and distinctive work-life balance support systems, and for leading the way in fostering an organizational culture of equality regardless of gender.

The Asia Business Daily has developed the 'Asia Gender Equality Index,' recognizing outstanding companies, based on the belief that the key to overcoming the nation’s low birth rate lies within the corporate sector. Marking its 10th year, the index’s calculation method was further refined this year for greater transparency and in-depth analysis. Evaluation items were classified into five categories: employment, compensation, development, work-life balance, and others, with detailed indicators set for each category. A total of 18 indicators were reflected across the five categories, and over 12,000 basic data points were collected for calculation.

Specifically, the index considers the employment of women as the starting point for gender equality and work-life balance, assigning the highest score of 30 points to the 'employment' category. This includes the proportion of female regular employees, the rate of increase or decrease in female employees over the past five years, and the proportion of women among new hires.

The categories of compensation, development, and work-life balance were each allocated 20 points. In the compensation category, the ratio of women’s length of service and annual salary compared to men was evaluated. In the development category, the proportion of female managers and the ratio of female internal and external directors were assessed.

For the work-life balance category, the index incorporated the parental leave utilization rate and the adoption of flexible work systems, both of which became mandatory disclosures in business reports starting in 2024. The 'other' category, worth 10 points, included factors such as government certifications or awards for gender equality and work-life balance, as well as the company’s own initiatives, such as the establishment of daycare centers.

In this way, each company’s gender equality index was calculated on a 100-point scale. To ensure objectivity and fairness, the business reports, sustainability (ESG) reports, management disclosures, and press releases of the surveyed companies were thoroughly analyzed, and a separate survey was also conducted.

The survey targeted the top 100 listed companies in Korea, excluding holding companies and public enterprises, as well as financial companies. The top 100 companies were selected based on their 2024 standalone revenue. For financial companies, the survey included 11 banks affiliated with financial holding companies and regional financial holding companies, internet-only banks, the top 10 securities firms, the three largest life insurance companies, the five largest non-life insurance companies, and eight specialized credit card companies, totaling 37 firms.

Jeon Iyoung, Professor at the Korea Labor and Employment Education Institute (Ph.D. in Business Administration), who has served as an advisor and reviewer for the Gender Equality Index for the past 10 years, stated, "The Gender Equality Index has become a compass for driving corporate change and a tool that proposes positive change across Korea’s industrial ecosystem," adding, "It will continue to serve as a practical standard for corporate organizational culture reflection and the realization of leadership diversity."

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