Women account for 5 percent of senior judges

By Kim Bo-eun

The number of female judges is increasing, but a glass ceiling still exists within the judiciary when it comes to senior appointments, data showed Wednesday.

According to Rep. Back Hye-ryun of the Democratic Party of Korea, women account for 29.1 percent of 2,974 judges as of August, but for only 5.2 percent of senior judges at high courts.

There were no women in the chief seats of local courts or high courts, which senior judges can apply for.

Women account for three out of 13 Supreme Court justices _ they are Park Poe-young, Kim So-young and Park Jung-hwa.

Females accounted for only 8.9 percent of 1,566 grade 5 civil servants in the judicial branch, which is significantly lower than the figures for the legislative (32.5 percent) and executive (15.9 percent) branches.

“The glass ceiling within the judiciary is harder than that of the government or National Assembly,” Back said.

“Because this is not a problem of inferior ability of female judges, the unequal gender representation will be resolved if the currently opaque system of performance evaluation is improved and the authority of the judges personnel committee is boosted,” she said.

The new Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su also conceded this at his confirmation hearing held earlier this month saying, “I cannot say that there is no glass ceiling. I will make an effort so that prejudices and stereotypes are not enforced.”