Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Financial firms seeking to foster female leaders
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By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Finance firms are seeking to cultivate female leaders to break the glass ceiling and promote diversity in the traditionally male-dominated sector.
KB Securities is leading such efforts, stating its goal of making the percentage of women in leadership positions 20 percent by 2022. This currently stands at 13 percent.
The brokerage recently signed a partnership with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on increasing female representation in management and leadership positions, after Park Jeong-rim became its CEO, the first female head of a securities company here.
KB Financial Group was included in Bloomberg's list of 230 global companies committed to transparency in gender reporting and advancing equality in the workplace.
It was recognized for efforts to foster female CEOs and executives, guaranteeing childbirth and childcare leave, setting up daycare centers at affiliate companies, and for its weekend family programs.
“Guaranteeing childcare leave applies to male employees as well, and many are using the system,” a KB Securities official said.
“The initiative to foster female leaders is about promoting gender equality, and in order to foster female leaders, various efforts need to be made. The idea is to go beyond KB and to foster a social climate which supports gender equality,” he said.
Shinhan Financial Group also shares these values.
Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung stressed the importance of fostering female workers at a forum held last year. Shinhan established a team within the holding company in charge of this and its leadership center is also assuming a role.
The group launched a taskforce which looked into the reasons behind the lack of female managers and leaders. It found that this was due to factors such as career breaks arising from childbirth and childcare and the lack of opportunities to network with female leaders.
Shinhan drew up ways to address these problems, and launched a mentoring program for female employees. Female leaders and managers of the group act as mentors for their junior colleagues. Shinhan Bank's Executive Vice President Cho Kyoung-sun took part in the program, along with the bank's executive Wang Mi-hwa.
Shinhan Financial Group was also included in Bloomberg's list of companies this year.
Shinhan Financial Group appointed a woman to chair its board of directors in 2010, a first for finance companies here. Two women were appointed heads of departments in January 2018.
Aside from Shinhan's mentoring program, it has a flexible working hour system and working centers outside of the company.
"This allows female employees to work while tending to family needs," a Shinhan official said. "Many are making use of the program."
This enables women to stay in the workforce, which enlarges the pool of female candidates for executive positions.
“The percentage of women in their 40s at companies is much lower than that of those in their 20s and 30s, as they decide to quit because they see no vision because there are few to no female executives. This is why a quota for female executives is necessary under the status quo,” Kim Sang-kyung, chairwoman of the Korea Network of Women in Finance, said.
“The reason firms need to have women at the executive level is not only due to the principle of gender equality but also because this leads to growth in profits, as studies have illustrated."