[2020 Women’s Forum] Park Yong-man "Solving Unfair Female Employment Issues, Society’s Duty"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] "Regarding women's economic activities, the government and companies have made many efforts in various ways. Although certain achievements are gradually emerging, when we conduct surveys at our Chamber of Commerce, 7 out of 10 respondents say that a glass ceiling exists and that they are disadvantaged in work opportunities. For anyone to work normally and demonstrate their abilities is not a matter of consideration but an obvious obligation of our society."

At the 9th Asia Women Leaders Forum held on the 28th at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, Park Yong-man, Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "Our society must make progressive efforts to find and solve the root causes related to unreasonable female employment."

Chairman Park emphasized, "The most important thing is to create a scientific and advanced working environment," adding, "There should be no policies that consider women again while leaving an uncomfortable environment for women to work as it is." He continued, "With active work redesign such as telecommuting and remote meetings, this is a good opportunity to accelerate a scientific and advanced environment," and added, "Unreasonable situations where one must be forcibly considered by increasing work predictability should be avoided from the start."

Furthermore, Chairman Park said, "Moreover, society as a whole should reflect on whether the systems and processes themselves highlight discrimination and inequality or if they are operating that way," adding, "Cases where unreasonable environments cause people to sense consideration from those around them also apply to differences in disabilities, age, and education, and this issue applies not only to work but also to housing and mobility."

Finally, he emphasized, "Before society considers these individuals, if there are systems and process systems that are the root causes of discrimination and unreasonableness, I think the order should be to change them scientifically and progressively."