23% of Government Committees Fail to Meet Legal 'Gender Balance' Standards

119 out of 511 Committees
32 Committees 'All Violations' in the Last 5 Years
No Improvement Despite Recommendations from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family
"Effectiveness of Improvement Recommendations Must Be Ensured"

It has been identified that 23% of all government committees failed to comply with the legal standards for 'gender balance.' In particular, 17 of these committees have not resolved the legal ratio issues despite annual improvement recommendations from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

According to the 2025 budget proposal committee-by-committee analysis report published by the National Assembly Budget Office on the 12th, 23.3% of government committees under central administrative agencies failed to comply with the legal gender ratio last year. This corresponds to 119 out of a total of 511 committees.

According to Article 21 of the Framework Act on Gender Equality, the state and local governments must ensure that, unless there are unavoidable reasons, a specific gender does not exceed 60% of the appointed members of a committee. Additionally, the state and local governments are required to submit the gender participation status of committees to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family annually. This year, the Ministry allocated a budget of 156 million KRW, the same as the previous year, to operate the government committee status management system.

However, looking at the past five years (2019?2023), the proportion of committees failing to comply with the legal ratio has been around 20% each year. Furthermore, despite the Ministry's improvement recommendations, many committees have continuously violated the legal ratio. Eighty-seven government committees failed to comply with the legal ratio three or more times in the past five years, and 32 committees violated the legal ratio all five times.

Provided by the National Assembly Budget Office.

The government committees that violated the legal gender ratio five times in the past five years and received recommendations from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family all five times include: the Police Committee (National Police Agency), the Veterans Review Committee (Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs), the Military Service Policy Deliberation Committee (Ministry of National Defense), the Automobile Safety Defect Deliberation Committee, Central Construction Technology Deliberation Committee, Central Urban Planning Committee, Central Land Expropriation Committee (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), the Securities and Futures Commission (Financial Services Commission), the Central Livestock Disease Control Committee (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety), the Defense Acquisition Program Promotion Committee (Defense Acquisition Program Administration), the Public Officials' Disaster Compensation Deliberation Committee (Ministry of Personnel Management), the Loss Compensation Deliberation Committee, Central Childcare Policy Committee (Ministry of Health and Welfare), the Surrounding Area Support Deliberation Committee, Business Restructuring Plan Deliberation Committee (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy), the Small and Medium Enterprise Technology Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Committee (Ministry of SMEs and Startups), and the Earthquake and Volcano Disaster Prevention Policy Deliberation Committee (Ministry of the Interior and Safety), totaling 17 committees.

While the average female participation rate across all government committees was 40.8% as of the first half of last year, individual committees have failed to meet the legal ratio. The National Assembly Budget Office pointed out that "there appears to be a limit to the effectiveness of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's improvement recommendations" and emphasized the need to seek measures to ensure the effectiveness of these recommendations.