Korea’s gender equality ranking drops amid reinforced stereotypes
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Korea’s national gender equality index dropped for the first time, reaching an all-time low since tracking began in 2010, the government said Thursday.
The gender gap in decision-making fields remained persistent, while stereotypes surrounding gender roles in families grew more entrenched, according to the latest data.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said the country’s latest gender equality index for 2023 stood at 65.4, a decrease of 0.8 from the previous year.
The annual index, rated on a scale from zero to 100, measures overall gender equality by quantifying the equality rate across various social fields. A score of 100 indicates complete gender equality.
Since the inaugural figure of 66.1 points in 2010, the index has seen small but steady increases each year, reaching 75.4 in 2021.
In 2022, the ministry revised the methods used to calculate the index. It removed outdated indicators, such as “gender ratio of a third child,” and added new, more relevant standards, including “gender role stereotypes within a family” and “share of caring for the elderly.”
After the changes, the figure for 2022 stood at 66.2. While it was considered somewhat difficult to make a year-on-year comparison at the time, the 2023 index showed a clear decline for the first time, dropping to 65.4 points.
The survey shows that gender equality levels in education (95.6 points) and health (94.2 points) were high. However, the scores for decision-making (32.5 points) and caregiving (32.9 points) were low, highlighting a significant gender gap in management roles within both the public and private sectors.
Additionally, a sharp decline in gender equality awareness appears to have primarily contributed to the overall downgrade. The figure stood at 73.2 points, down 6.8 points from the previous year's 80 points.
Among these areas, the drop in score was particularly noticeable in the gender role stereotype index within families, which saw a dramatic decline from 60.1 points to 43.7 points. Additionally, the rate of men using paternal leave fell from 37 points to 34.7 points.
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The lowest among the 23 indicators was the ratio of female ministers at 20 points. The country has three female ministers across 19 ministries and agencies.
The gender ratio at the National Assembly was the second lowest at 23 points. Only 60 out of 300 incumbent lawmakers are women.
According to Lee Dong-sun, a researcher at the Korean Women’s Development Institute who participated in the study, the decline can be attributed to the post-pandemic increase in caregiving responsibilities within families and the higher use of maternity leave by women, which may have contributed to the overall drop in the index.
The change comes amid recent setbacks in the country’s gender equality policy under the former Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
Then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol's short message on his Facebook uploaded on Jan. 7, 2022, announcing his pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family / Korea Times file
Yoon, who claimed that "no structural gender discrimination exists in Korea" during his presidential campaign, was seen as running an openly misogynistic election platform and advocated for the abolition of the gender ministry after taking office.
During his tenure, the term "women" was removed from several policies and replaced with "gender," while the gender ministry made significant budget cuts to programs aimed at protecting women from gender-based violence.
"We need to distinguish this from previous indicators due to significant changes in the measurement method since 2022," a gender ministry official said in response to the decline in the index.
However, the official added, "As the primary cause of the index's decline is the strengthening of gender role stereotypes within families, we plan to reinforce the childcare support system and work-family balance policies while working to spread a culture of gender equality across society."