[K-Women Talk] Female Leadership: Time to Focus on the "Middle Tier"

Since the beginning of the year, news of female CEOs being appointed at companies such as LG Household & Health Care, Olive Young, and 11st has been followed recently by similar announcements from Hanssem, Able C&C, SeAH Besteel, and TVING. This change comes more than 20 years after Yoon Yeo-sun, a first-generation female executive in Korea and former head of LG Art Center, became the ‘first female executive in LG Group’ in 2000, attracting much attention.

According to an IBM survey of 2,500 companies worldwide, the proportion of female top executives is steadily increasing at 12%. This is a positive sign that leadership opportunities for women are growing on a global scale. In comparison, South Korea still ranks last for 11 consecutive years among 29 OECD countries in the ‘Glass Ceiling Index’ published by The Economist, which is a harsh reality.

In the past, many executive recruitment conditions specified male candidates. Unlike before, when it was necessary to check whether women could be recommended, gender has recently become irrelevant. The main reason for this change is related to the evolving abilities and characteristics expected of corporate leaders. In other words, while traditional organizational management methods that emphasized interpersonal relationships favored men, the rapid social changes before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to a non-face-to-face era have brought about a change toward performance evaluations based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and valuing emotional communication in organizational management. As the changed organizational culture aligns with the strengths of female leadership, gender biases are gradually disappearing.

So, while it is encouraging to hear about the increasing proportion of women in top management and boards of directors in Korea, as well as the growing number of female hires, what challenges does female leadership currently face? Above all, there is a shortage of female talent pools in middle management. Even when headhunters recommend a legally mandated minimum number of female outside directors, the weakness of the domestic female leadership and middle management pipeline is easily apparent.

While systematic analysis of this phenomenon is important, a recent K Women talk concert on workplace life and careers made the obvious reality very clear. The concerns of the attendees were very similar to those of women 20 years ago, including questions about the right timing for marriage and having children, how to balance relationships with the workplace, and anxieties about their own abilities?intuitive yet fundamental unresolved issues.

To foster the growth of female leadership, it is necessary to build a solid pipeline of female middle managers. Similar concerns among female workers throughout their life cycles are expected to continue in the future. It is essential to continuously create an environment that recognizes and supports female leadership and to further develop systems and policies that help balance family and work. Through this, true growth with greater diversity and inclusiveness can be achieved.

Women called ‘Alpha Girls,’ who surpass men in academics, sports, and leadership with high ambition and confidence, ultimately become elite female leaders. To reach this stage, it is necessary to maintain and expand the pool of female middle talent. Rather than focusing on policies aimed at a few star female executives, it is time to shift attention to creating a basic environment that sustains middle management positions.

Moon Seon-kyung, Executive Director, Unico Search