By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

By the standards of 10 or 20 years ago, Korean women's status in society has improved remarkably but there is a long way to go to attain gender equality, the Ministry of Labor said in a report Wednesday.

Its research arm, the Korea Labor Institute, reported that the women empowerment index marked 57.4 out of 100 last year at workplaces. A score of 100 signifies men and women are on a totally equal footing.

An average female worker's salary was only about 70 percent that of men's. They also lagged behind in compensation for overtime work and other benefits.

However, the institute said the low score is related to the fact that men still dominate management and high-ranking positions.

Currently, female legislators account for 13.7 percent of the 299-member National Assembly. There are only two women serving as ministers among some 20 positions, with no female governors.

A mere 3.68 percent of high-ranking government officials were women in 2008, down from 6.23 percent in 2006. Only 0.28 percent of females workers are CEOs.

"Giving birth and rearing children narrows their window of opportunity," Hur Won-yong, a ministry official, said.

A woman identified by her family name, Cho, who is now on maternity leave from a bank, said society isn't ready to give women the same opportunities as men. "I was constantly told that management preferred males over females because men do not ask to go home on time to watch their kids. Males also fight harder for promotions and put more effort into their work, bosses said," she said.

According to the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum, Korea ranked 115th in gender equality among 134 countries. The forum gave Korea a score of 0.615 in the gender equality index, which is far lower than the scores of many other Asian nations.

Iceland scored 0.827, taking the world's top place. Among the leading groups were Finland, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Lesotho. Korea was far behind the Philippines, which listed ninth, China (60th) and Japan (75th).

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr