Gender gap hits economy

Seoul. SOUTH Korea's female high-school students are being encouraged to compete for more places at top universities.

The move follows the passing of a Women's Development Law and the acceptance of a five-year plan to close the gender gap.

At present male graduates dominate South Korea's top jobs and female workers are largely employed in low-paid jobs in manufacturing and services.

Some 35 per cent of women in the 18 to 21 age group are in higher education, compared with 57 per cent of males. But most are enrolled in lower-status junior colleges and teacher training colleges rather than four-year universities.

Student Sunhwa Koo says: "Most of the country's top jobs are filled by graduates from elite universities. Female students are still a small minority."

Female graduates also have fewer career options because of employer discrimination. Employers argue that women are unreliable employees because they leave to start families.

"Job-seeking female graduates often encounter recruiting officers who are more interested in a woman's age and appearance than her academic qualifications," says Sunhwa Koo. "Many female students are reluctant to get involved in the tough competition for places at top universities because of the discrimination they know they will face in the job market."

High schools, meanwhile, are being asked to encourage more female students to take up courses in science, computing and industrial skills.

Women-only universities are also being urged to develop their science and engineering faculties and to try to attract more students to these subjects.

Coeducation remains strong in a country where traditional Confucian principles teach that men are superior to women and that the principal role of woman is as wife, mother and homemaker.

Parents, for their part, are being urged to send their daughters, as well as their sons, to university. The high cost of university, pre-university and high-school tuition has meant that families have traditionally been more willing to pay for their sons.

One member of the Korean Women's Development Institute has suggested the introduction of target numbers of female enrolments at top universities. Other members are demanding more stringent action against employers who discriminate.

But the real impetus for change may come from another source. "A shortage of key workers threatens to hinder South Korea's future economic development," explains Sunhwa Koo. "The country can no longer afford to disregard the talents of a large part of its population."