Companies prefer men over women

By Kim Tong-hyung

A majority of Korean firms admit to discriminating against women in the employment process, a survey showed Tuesday, suggesting that the speechifying and pleas for equality were all for naught.

According to Saramin, a job information website, which interviewed the personnel officials of some 300 firms in the past month, 50.2 percent of the respondents said they will hire male over female job applicants if the credentials are similar.

Around 35 percent said that gender doesn’t influence their decision making, while 15 percent said they prefer women.

Twenty-seven percent said they have hired applicants they rated as under-qualified in the past and nearly 68 percent of these respondents said they picked men.

Softening growth rates, collapsing consumer spending and an aging workforce have been fueling apocalyptic talk about the future of Korea’s economy. Encouraging consumption and increasing the labor participation of women by improving their freedom to set a work-life balance have become critical and this would require a reshaping of the old Korean corporate culture defined by long working hours.

Despite this, the survey by Saramin suggests that the companies are just not getting it. About 37 percent of the respondents said they prefer men because they presumably are less resistant to overtime work and weekend shifts. Around 34 percent believed that men are more responsible and 32 percent found them more ‘’coachable.’’

More than 55 percent of the respondents said the risk for hiring women is that they will quit after getting married due to having a baby. About 48 percent said they thought it was tougher to persuade women to work overtime. More than 40 percent of the respondents were uneasy about granting maternity leave to female employees who get pregnant, while a similar percentage admitted it was hard for their companies to balance work and life evenly.

Government figures confirm that women in their 30s are dropping out of the workplace at an alarming rate and their lack of freedom in setting a work-life balance has been identified as the culprit. The pay gap between men and women also remains wide, so when couples discuss how they are going to afford childcare, it’s normally the wife who stays at home.