[Women’s Forum 10th Anniversary] 49% of Female Workers Say "The Biggest Issue with Women’s Policies Is Ineffective Implementation"

'10th Anniversary of Asia Women Leaders Forum' Survey

Women’s Policy Issues Ranked #1 Across All Age Groups Except 4050
"Substantial Content Lacking, Not Helpful"
19.8% of Respondents Agreed

Only Half Aware of Some Policies Like Increasing Female Representation in Public Sector
Awareness Lower Among Lower Ranks

Most Support Expanding Policies Like Parental Leave and Career Break Prevention
Improving Social Perceptions of Gender Roles Cited as Top Priority for Female Leadership

[Asia Economy Reporters Hyunju Lee and Jihwan Park] Half of working women see the biggest problem as the fact that although women's policies are already in place, they are not being properly implemented. In some women's policies, such as enhancing women's representation in the public sector, a significant number of working women were unaware that such systems even existed.

According to a survey conducted on the 25th by Asia Economy Newspaper to mark the 10th anniversary of the Asia Women Leaders Forum, commissioned to Winzi Korea Consulting, targeting 500 working women aged 25 and older living in the metropolitan area, the most frequently cited area for improvement in current women's policies was "systems are established but not actually implemented" (49.0%). Looking at the age groups, except for those in their 40s (47.3%) and 50s (36.5%), more than half of respondents in all other age groups pointed to the ineffectiveness of the systems as the number one problem with women's policies.

Responses indicating "the substantive content is insufficient and thus unhelpful" accounted for 19.8%. Combining this with the previous response, about 70% of respondents acknowledged the existence of women's policies but pointed out that these are not properly utilized in practice. Bae Jin-kyung, head of the Korean Women Workers Association, said, "For example, with parental leave, companies do provide the leave, but the issue is whether employees who have taken parental leave can return to their original positions," adding, "In their relationship with companies, workers often cannot fully utilize the system even if it exists." Other problems cited were "lack of publicity leading to unawareness" (12.0%), "the scope of beneficiaries is too narrow" (11.4%), and "support and application procedures are too complicated" (6.0%).

Only about half of respondents were aware of some women's policies. Awareness of "enhancing women's representation in the public sector" and "gender impact assessment" was only 49.4% and 54.0%, respectively, which is significantly lower compared to parental leave system (99.8%), prohibition of gender discrimination in employment (93.4%), prevention of career interruption and employment support (92.8%), and gender equality hiring targets (73.8%).

The lower the job rank within the company, the more respondents answered that they "did not know" about the policies on enhancing women's representation in the public sector and gender impact assessment. Enhancing women's representation in the public sector is one of the 100 national tasks of the Moon Jae-in administration. It evaluates the achievement rate of annual female participation targets in 12 public sectors, including senior public officials, public institution executives, national university professors, and general police officers. Gender impact assessment refers to a system that analyzes the characteristics and needs of women and men, as well as the causes of socio-economic disparities, during the formulation and implementation of major government policies such as laws, plans, and projects, and recommends necessary measures to the relevant agencies to contribute to realizing gender equality. Kang Min-jung, head of the Research Planning Center at the Korean Women's Policy Institute, said, "Even if these policies are not easily felt by the general public in daily life, it is necessary to promote that they are being properly implemented in the private sector," adding, "Departments implementing policies to enhance women's representation in the public sector or gender impact assessments should be empowered through budgets to promote them effectively."

Working women strongly agreed with maintaining and expanding women's policies. Especially, parental leave, prevention of career interruption and employment support, and prohibition of gender discrimination in employment, which ranked highest in awareness, were supported for expansion by more than 96% of respondents. Additionally, over 90% of respondents considered these policies important.

When asked to suggest ideas for developing women's leadership, "improving social perceptions of gender roles" was identified as the most urgent issue to address (9.7%). This was followed by providing incentives to companies hiring women with career interruptions (6.5%), expanding childcare support (5.0%), and mandating gender-equal employment (5.0%). Notably, the younger the age group, the higher the response rate for providing incentives to companies hiring women with career interruptions.

◇How the survey was conducted

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Asia Women Leaders Forum, Asia Economy Newspaper commissioned the professional agency Winzi Korea Consulting to conduct a survey on perceptions of women's leadership. The survey was conducted online from the 12th to the 14th, targeting 500 working women aged 25 and older living in the metropolitan area, using a structured questionnaire. The sampling error is ±4.4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.