Winter 2012-2013 …Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL … 37TODAYS WORKING WOMEN IN [600678]

Winter 2012-2013 ……Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL ……… 37TODAY’S WORKING WOMEN IN
SOUTH KOREA
by Su Mi Han
Introduction
The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s dramatically affected Korea’s
economic structure and its labor markets. Since the IMF in 2001, the eco –
nomic crisis had an enormous impact on Korean society. The divorce rate
rose to high levels due to economic difficulties, emigration increased to
countries such as the United States and Australia, and social bonds based
on Confucianism weakened (Kim & V oos, 2007).
The most significant changes produced by the financial crisis occurred in
the labor market, especially the increasing number of women participat –
ing in the labor market. Korean women’s labor force participation has
been increasing steadily, reaching 42.8 per cent in 1985 and 48.3 per cent
in 2001, with married women outnumbering unmarried women since
1990. Women seek paid work for economic, social and political indepen –
dence. Governments see it as a solution to economic and social problems,
as well as to gender inequality (Won & Pascall, 2004).
Labor markets are characterized by occupational sex segregation, which
simply means that women and men are not employed in the same types
of occupations or industries. The majority of working women tend to be
employed in a limited number of occupational categories. Occupational
categories dominated by women are generally paid more poorly than
those dominated by men even when differences in education and skill are
taken into account (Monk-Turner & Turner, 2001).
According to Blau & Ferber (1986), labor-market discrimination exists
when two equally qualified individuals are treated differently solely on
the basis of their sex. If wage disparities by gender persist, even after one
controls for occupational category and other background variables, then
discrimination may be a characteristic of the labor market (Neumark &
McLennan, 1995). For these reasons, working women in South Korea
have never enjoyed the same rights as their male counterparts (Lesseur ,
1997).
Although there are now legal measures in South Korea, such as the Gen –
der Equality Law, Gender Discrimination Prevention and Relief Law, and Chapter 4

38 ………. Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL……….Winter 2012-2013the Public Sector Female Employment Incentive System, discrimination
continues against women within the labor market. Women workers make
up 41.8 per cent of non-salaried and non-management level workers, thus
occupying a low status in the labor market. About 44 per cent of female
wageworkers are concentrated in work places with less than 10 employ –
ees. Only 18.8 per cent of women workers are employed in workplaces
with more than 100 employees. From the beginning of recruitment to
employment, discrimination separates women into less desirable jobs,
and makes them ineligible for promotion, training, retirement age sys –
tem, and retirement benefits (Park, 2006).
This paper examines the Korean women who are working in industry
today. Thus we will focus on female labor force trends. This paper also
studies the status of women workers in South Korea in terms of gender
earning gap, employment, and education. Finally, this paper focuses on
the multiple roles of married women in South Korea.
Female Labor Force Trends
In South Korea, women workers usually continued in the traditional sec –
tor while men moved into the capitalist sector during early capitalism.
By industry, most women (23 per cent) are employed in manufacturing
(about 80 pe3r cent of female employment here is in textile and electron –
ic industries). Notably, the lowest-income industrial field in South Korea
is manufacturing. Many (17 per cent) women continue to be employed
in farming and fishing sectors. After manufacturing and farming, women
work in sales (16 per cent), services (16 per cent), clerical (15 per cent),
professional (7.5 per cent), and administrative and managerial fields (0.1
per cent). Female manufacturing workers tend to be young and unmar –
ried. The social custom of leaving paid work upon marriage (or at least
on the birth of the first child) continues to characterize the South Korean
labor market. Social and cultural ideas about the proper role of women
in work and family life appear to restrict work opportunities for women
(Monk-Turner & Turner, 2001). Even women’s new role in the labor
market had little positive effect on their social status. Familial control
of women’s labor continues, and women often have been deliberately
defined backwards (Gwon, 2006).
By the early 1990s, female labor force participation (15 years and over)
rose to 47.2 per cent (up from 26.8 per cent in 1960). After the age of
20, the majority of Korean women are in the labor force (43 per cent for
women aged 25-29 and a participation rate of 26 per cent for women
over the age of 60). The participation rate of women remains lower than
that for men (73.9 per cent). Women’s participation is higher in farm
households (65.5 per cent) than in nonfarm households (44.5 per cent). In
farm households, labor-force participation among older women has risen,

Winter 2012-2013 ……Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL ……… 39a phenomenon primarily attributed to the migration of young people
from rural area (Monk-Turner & Turner, 2001). The overall increase in
female participation in the labor market has contributed to a threefold
increase in the number of female workers between 1963 and 1999, while
male participation doubled over the same period. This active participa –
tion by female workers has been a main source of labor force supply for
the last 30 years. That is to say, the female labor force has played a vital
role in boosting the Korean economy. Since the financial crisis in 1997,
growth of the economically active population as well as that of total em –
ployment in South Korea has been somewhat stagnant (Yoo, 2003).
The rate of economic activity of males continues to increase until their
early 30s, and then gradually decreases. The graph of women show
that their participation continues until their early 20s, stays at that level
until their late 20s, and suddenly drops. This is the period when women
become pregnant, have children, and become caretakers of their children.
Because it is difficult to continue working during pregnancy, childbirth,
or child care, women workers quit or are forced to leave their jobs. Ir –
regular workers who become pregnant or give birth do not get their con –
tracts renewed, so they cannot use their maternity leave. Then, after their
children reach a certain age, these women return to work to earn money
for their children’s school tuition, during a period that requires the great –
est household income for a family’s survival. So from the mid 30s to the
early 40s, the rate of participation for women reaches a peak. For most
middle-aged women re-entering the labor market, most end up working
in low wage irregular work (Park, 2006).
Although women workers were present in the 1960s and 1970s demo –
cratic labor movement, there was no time to think about women in par –
ticular. Korean society is slowly recognizing the discrimination against
women. For example, at Hana Bank, employees were divided into two
types of jobs: male workers made up 93 per cent of management em –
ployees, and women made up 98 per cent of tellers. As a result, a court
ruled that having two different types of employment, and barriers against
women in work evaluations for promotion, violated the ban on gender
discrimination as outlined by the Gender Equality Law (Park, 2006).
Most women felt that once the labor movement (labor unions) became
established for everyone, then the women workers’ problems would
also be solved. When that did not happen, the Korean Women Workers
Association (KWWA) was established in 1987 to organize and promote
women workers. After that in 1992 the Korean Women Workers Associa –
tions United (KWWAU) formed, uniting the regional groups, and work –
ing to increase the expertise and scope of the women workers movement,
as well as conducting aggressive policy changes, establishing childcare

40 ………. Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL……….Winter 2012-2013facilities at workplaces, initiating job training for women, and creating
plans for women worker’s welfare. The KWWAU was also the watchdog
over government plans for women worker’s welfare, and it conducted
activities against the Dispatch Law and worked to revise the Gender
Equality Law (Park, 2006).
On the other hand, in 1990s, married women comprise only a small
segment of the labor force in South Korea and they find themselves
economically and politically marginalized by completing demands from
work and family. Most married women in the paid labor force are there
because of financial necessity, but because their position clashes with
prevailing cultural expectations, they are forced to take the least desirable
jobs at low wages (Kim, 1996). But today, the number of married women
workers in the Korean labor market is increasing steadily. Moreover, as
in many other countries, the importance of women (married or unmar –
ried) in the Korean labor market will continue to increase.
Status of Women Workers in South Korea
Traditional Korean society was highly patriarchal. For example, only a
few years ago, daughters were granted the same legal rights to inheri –
tance as sons. Even today, when South Korea’s birth rate is lower than
that of most industrialized countries, sons are still preferred to daughters
in some families (Kim & V oos, 2007).
According to Kim and V oss (2007), traditional Korean society had
sharply delineated gender roles and employment roles initially reflected
the social context. Korean women continued to experience various forms
of discrimination in their labor market. It includes occupational/industrial
segregation, lower earnings than men in similar jobs, less opportunity
to acquire human capital via education or on-the-job training, and fewer
promotion opportunities. The labor division by gender, with men as the
primary breadwinners and women as the primary care givers, played an
ongoing role inside and outside the work place (Kim & V oos, 2007).
Here, this paper will focus on the status of women workers in South Ko –
rea in terms of gender earning gap, employment, and education.
Gender Earning Gap
In South Korea, the average earnings of Korean female workers are ap –
proximately 60 per cent of Korean male workers’ earnings, whereas the
comparable value for the United States is approximately 80 per cent (the
average level among the seventeen OECD countries). The Gender Earn –
ing Gap remains considerable, although it has improved over time (Cho
& Cho, 2011). On the other hand, recession can also affect not only the
number of women who are employed but also other aspects of women’ s
employment, including the gender earning gap. For instance, pay dis –
crimination against women increased between 1997 and 2001 in South

Winter 2012-2013 ……Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL ……… 41Korea (Kim & V oos, 2007).
Employment
In South Korea, gender differences in the types and classes of occupa –
tion exist. More men were engaged in executive and managerial as well
as professional and technical jobs than in clerical, service and sales, or
production positions in 1999 than in 1988. The share of female workers
increased in all types of occupations except production. However , by
calculating the ratio of female workers in each type of occupation, it can
be noted that the highest-paid and socially respectable occupations are
often over-represented by male workers. In particular, the ratio of female
workers in executive and managerial occupations stood at a mere one per
cent, meaning that the highest-paid jobs are nearly monopolized by men.
Similar gender differences were found in hierarchical positions as well.
Almost all top positions, such as executive officers and general manag –
ers, are held by men (Yoo, 2003).
The average wage of female workers in the female-dominated occupa –
tional category was slightly higher than that of female workers in the
mixed jobs category, but it was generally lower than that in the male-
dominated category. According to crowding theory, given gender stereo –
typing of economic roles, women are crowded into female-dominated
jobs, lowering the wages on those jobs due to oversupply (Sorensen,
1997). Gender-related job segregation and the crowding of female work –
ers within a limited range of unskilled jobs at the bottom rung of the
job hierarchy raises the question of discrimination against women in
the course of job assignment and promotion. This situation also reduces
women’s opportunity for on-the-job training and promotion, and results
in a lower level of attachment to the firm and relatively shorter tenure
(Yoo, 2003).
Education
The decrease in the gender earning gap was accompanied by changing
ideas about women’s role and by increased labor force participation by
Korean women. One of the factors having the strongest influence on
the narrowing of the gender earning gap has been education. In general,
workers’ education level is highest in integrated occupations and lowest
in female-dominated occupations in South Korea (Hwang, 2003).
Meanwhile, women in South Korea acquire less education than do men.
By the late 1980s, men in South Korea had completed an average of
10.55 years of schooling; for women the figure was 8.58 years. Accord –
ing to the most current data available, women account for less than one-
fourth of all students (23.8 per cent) enrolled in colleges and universities
(Monk-Turner & Turner, 2001). The share of college graduates shows the
largest difference between the sexes, with an average of 29 per cent of

42 ………. Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL……….Winter 2012-2013men and 13.3 per cent of women completing this level of higher educa –
tion. Such a large difference reflects women’s lower college enrollment
rate and their concentration in majors. For example, women are majoring
more in literature and humanities. Those graduates are less preferred by
employers; in addition, there is a lack of employment opportunities for
highly educated women (Yoo, 2003). At the same time, few women study
engineering, law, or agriculture in higher education.
In South Korea, women’s educational attainment has risen rapidly.
Women’s higher educational attainment over time has helped narrow the
gender earning gap in two ways. First, education had a positive ef fect on
earnings in general, so the more rapid growth of women’s investment in
education was one factor that narrowed the overall gender earning gap.
Second, the wage effect of education has been greater among Korean
women than among men (Kim & V oos, 2007). According to Kim (1999),
women who graduated from high school earned 17 per cent more than
those who had only elementary school education; the differential for men
was 10 per cent. Based on the Economically Active Population Survey,
the labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 41.5 per cent for Korean
women with high school educations or less, and the LFPR increased up
to 60.1 per cent for women with college diplomas. In South Korea, the
LFPR of women who have graduated from high school increases from
50.5 per cent during their 20s, to 52.5 per cent in their 30s and 64.7 per
cent during their 40s. The LFPR decreases to 53.7 per cent for women in
their 50s who have graduated from high school. On the other hand, the
LFPR of women who have college degrees is 75.1 per cent during their
20s, 51.2 per cent during their 30s, 49.8 per cent during their 40s, and
42.9 per cent during their 50s (Cho & Cho, 2011).
The phenomenon of the rapid exit from the labor force by highly edu –
cated women during their 30s can be explained by the following factors.
First, both the effect of income earned by a husband with the same level
of educational attainment and insufficient provision of child care services
induce highly educated Korean women to move out of the labor market.
Secondly, highly educated Korean women are more likely than women
workers with low educational attainment to work under permanent
contracts, which confer seniority rights and eligibility for promotion. As
the legal protection of reinstatement after pregnancy and childbirth is
tenuous for women in permanent jobs in South Korea, highly educated
women experiencing pregnancy and child care responsibilities face a
high risk. Thirdly, the seniority-based payment system in South Korea
tends to be disadvantageous for women, because women have been dis –
criminated against in promotions, and their job tenure tends to be short –
ened with life events such as marriage and child bearing. Seniority-based

Winter 2012-2013 ……Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL ……… 43payment is usually adopted in the permanent jobs where highly educated
women are employed, and it is thereby likely to have a negative ef fect on
women with high educational attainment (Cho & Cho, 2011).
Multiple Roles of Married Korean Women
“It’ s a kind of war! I work from six in the morning to 10 at night and
beyond. What my husband does in the morning is going to the toilet and
taking a shower. He usually comes home around or after midnight. My
job is a never ending story. And most working mothers in South Korea
might be similar.” (Mrs. Kwon)
“I normally take my work home, when I can’t finish it because I can’t stay
in the workplace for long. I have to come home to do family work and to
take care of my children. Therefore, I take work home and when every –
body sleeps, I start my work to finish it before the next day.”
(Mrs. Jeon; Sung, 2003)
It is important to remember that women’s proper role in South Korea was
traditionally confined to the home. Korean family life is generally based
on Confucian philosophy and ethics that strongly influence the traditional
values and roles of family members (Choi, 1994). Confucians believe
that society consists of five relationships – those between ruler and
subjects, husband and wife, father and son, older and younger brother ,
and between friends. Society would function smoothly if all parties car –
ried out their obligations dutifully within these relationships. To ensure
balance and harmony, Confucian values focus on power and hierarchy. It
heavily emphasizes the differences in age, sex, role and status (Croucher
& Miles, 2009).
Harmonious relationships among the family members are expected and
strongly reinforced. Traditional values support the patriarchal system
of roles and relationships in Korean families. Husbands are regarded as
leaders, with their families following them in all decisions and looking
to them for guidance and wisdom. That is to say, husbands are expected
to be the breadwinner, major decision maker, head of the family, and
enforcer of rules. On the other hand, wives occupy domestic roles. Their
role is to provide emotional nurturance to her husband and children.
They also assume full responsibility for the household tasks. At the same
time, a wife is expected to be passive and submissive to her husband
and his family. For example, they are expected to adopt the habits and
customs of their husbands’ families, whilst abandoning their own. When
family members fail to perform the role behaviors demanded by tradi –
tion, disharmony and shame may be brought to the family, and women
may be reprimanded by actual or threatened abandonment by the family
(Ho, 1987).

44 ………. Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL……….Winter 2012-2013As South Korea became an industrial country, more women sought em –
ployment in various fields, including factories (Kim, Cho, Lee, Marion
& Kim, 2005). Consequently, these traditional roles are challenged when
Korean women work outside the home to assist in providing financial
support and are also expected to perform numerous household and child-
rearing tasks. Working women’s experience is of child care war, with
effective support neither from government nor from Confucian families.
Some women may cope with this challenge by negotiating with their
husbands for assistance with household tasks and rearing the children.
Others may try to accomplish all of the expected tasks by working harder
themselves (Lee, Um & Kim, 2004). Negotiating the sharing of house –
hold and child-rearing tasks with their husbands may be difficult because
of the rigidity of traditional roles.
According to Lee et al. (2004), married women in South Korea who
perceive the roles of motherhood and career as incompatible are less
likely to discuss sharing of household roles with their husbands. That is,
traditional values governing husbands’ and wives’ roles are very strongly
embedded in Korean families, even when these families immigrate to
another country where the culture would allow negotiation and discus –
sion regarding sharing of household and child-rearing roles. Kim (1995)
mentioned that Korean wives in the United States are more likely to
work harder to perform all household and child-rearing tasks with their
husbands. On the other hand, women who spent less time helping with
their children’s homework tended to have higher levels of depression.
The harder the women worked, rather than negotiate household tasks
with their husbands, the higher were their levels of depression. More –
over, women who worked harder did not have other family members
with whom they could share household tasks (Lee et al., 2004).
Implications
With economic development in South Korea, women’s participation in
the labor market has gradually increased since the 1960s. The increas –
ing number of women participating in the labor market has brought
some changes to traditional ideas about a woman’s role in Korean family
and society. For instance, equal opportunity legislation was introduced
in 1987 and has since been reformed several times in order to improve
rights for working women. Also, feminist organizations have become
more influential, in that their voices can be heard more strongly than ever
(Sung, 2003)
The formal and legal maintenance of such inequality has only recently
been challenged. Until the late 1980s, women had no legal protection in
the work world. Further, it was not until the early 1990s that women’s
position within the family law system was revised. Unfortunately , Kore –

Winter 2012-2013 ……Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL ……… 45an women are in a disadvantaged place in the work world is not breaking
news in South Korea to men or women. Until women and men recognize
gender discrimination as problematic, and effective mechanisms are in
place to ensure change, the status of women in South Korea will un –
doubtedly lag behind that of men (Monk-Turner & Turner, 2001).
It is necessary for women to advocate for more effective enforcement of
equality-related laws. At the same time, it may be advisable to position
demands for enforcement of women-specific laws within a context of
general policies to improve the treatment of all workers, men or women
(Kim & V oos, 2007).
South Korea has an Equal Employment Law that requires equal treat –
ment in recruitment, hiring, wages, training, promotion, and lay-of f, but
its provisions were not followed from time to time. Improving enforce –
ment of the law must be a priority for those wishing to advance the
treatment of Korean women. Nevertheless, even with all these changes
in Korean society, the extent to which Korean working women’s lives
have changed in reality is questionable, since traditional Confucian ideas
about the role of women remain in force (Sung, 2003).
It is of crucial importance to understand the implications of Confucian –
ism in Korean society, where Confucian traditions have been strongly
practiced and have become key cultural features. The characteristics of
Confucian patriarchal authoritarian structure in economic firms and or ga-
nizations in South Korea continue to affect women’s work experiences.
Employees are taught to regard their work place as a family, and that the
head or manager of an organization should be considered as a head of the
family. The impact of Confucianism on gender roles may be greater than
other men and women in society and in family relations. Korean society
today is not as much dominated by Confucian ideas as in the past (Sung,
2003). As mentioned above, there are now changes geared to achieving
greater equality between men and women in society. Yet married Korean
women in paid employment today still encounter a contradiction between
the changes and the traditions. On the one hand, they are involved in paid
employment, which can be seen as one of the contemporary changes. On
the other hand, they are also expected to play the role of primary care-
giver and domestic worker in the family, in ways congruent with the
traditional roles of women in Confucian society. Korean social policy
for working women is in the process of development, and the govern –
ment has made many reforms, along with other recent changes in Korean
society as a consequence of industrialization, women’s increasing partici –
pation in the labor market, and the impact of international organizations
in improving gender equality (Sung, 2003). The population of working
women is increasing and it will continue to increase. Thus, it seems more

46 ………. Career Planning and Adult Development JOURNAL……….Winter 2012-2013appropriate for the Korean government to pay more attention to improv –
ing state policy for women in their employment, and to supporting their
work, rather than attributing sole responsibility to families by emphasiz –
ing Confucian virtue.
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About the author
Su Mi Han , PhD, is Professor, Counseling & Educational Psychol –
ogy, at Seoul Cyber University, Seoul, Korea. Previously, she worked at
the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, College of
Education, University of Nevada, Reno. She was a Counseling Professor ,
LL Welfare Foundation, and was a Counselor for the Seoul Broadcasting
System. With M. F. Maples, she co-authored in 2008 the article, Cyber –
counseling in the U.S.A. and South Korea: Implications for Counsel –
ing College Students of the Millennial Generation and the Networked
Generation, published in Journal of Counseling & Development, 86 (2),
pages 178-183. She co-authored with J. Heo in 2000 the book Career
Counseling and Psychology, published in Seoul by Kowin publishing.
Contact her as follows:
Su-Mi Han, PhD
Seoul Cyber University
193 Mia-Dong, Kangbuk-Ku
Seoul, KOREA (zip code: 142-700)
Tel: 82-11-318-0647(C), 82-2-944-5026(O)
e-mail:han@iscu.ac.kr.

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