Female executives still rare in Korea

The glass ceiling is still in place in corporate Korea, with a new survey showing that only one in five top companies have women on their executive boards. 

Women account for only 51 spots in the management boards of 21 companies from the top-100 listed firms this year, management magazine HR Insight said yesterday. 

Women in the management positions of KOSPI-listed companies have increased four-fold from 22 in 2006 this year. 

KT Corp., the country’s largest telecom operator, had placed 12 women in their board of directors, by far the most. Samsung Electronics had seven,LG Electronics five, and Korean Air four.

“The number of women promoted internally to executive positions is quite small here,” Oh Il-sun, managing editor of the magazine said.

A 54.9 percent, or 28 of the total, had been promoted internally and the rest were recruited from elsewhere. The fastest career track-record among them is held by Han Hyun-mi, 50, who joined Asiana Airlines in 1990 and became vice president in 2006. The youngest is Jun Jin-soo, 39, deputy vice president of Amore Pacific, the country’s largest cosmetics manufacturer.

Kim Jin, vice president of LG Electronics, had kept her executive position for nine years, the longest any Korean woman had in a listed local company.

Ten among the 51 are Seoul National University graduates, followed by Yonsei University with six and Ewha Womans University with five.