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omonatheydid2011-11-17 01:53 am
strawberry-efeu.livejournal.com) wrote in omonatheydid2011-11-17 01:53 am
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University Graduates: One Woman Hired for every Four Men
Women – not men – were fired in droves at the start of the 2008 financial crisis. But was that as outrageously sexist as it sounds?
After all, they were the bulk of irregular workers back then, when Korea had a greater percentage of them than any other OECD country. Insecurity was a given, which is why the status and rights of irregular workers was a big political issue years before the crisis.
KoreanLabor
Also, bear in mind that most single people live with their parents until marriage. So, however perverse, there was a certain logic in the government concentrating on securing jobs for (overwhelmingly male) heads of households, as husbands would provide for their wives, and fathers for their daughters.
In such strained circumstances, it sounds almost churlish of women to complain.
But although women weren’t irregular workers when the Asian Financial Crisis hit a decade earlier, yet again they were the first to be fired (ironically, Korea actually had the least irregular workers in the OECD then). Also, it was only this newly emerging irregular work that was made available to women once the Korean economy began to recover, and accordingly the Korean female workforce participation rate has stagnated at the lowest or near-lowest rate in the OECD ever since.
A simplistic account of Korean employment trends over the last fifteen years or so? Perhaps. But was it more systematic sexism than economic logic involved? Almost certainly. How else to explain why three years after the latest crisis, Korean companies are hiring roughly only one female graduate for every four male ones, as the following MK article makes clear?
“Sexual discrimination in hiring” [causes] female university students’ tears
31 October 2011
The goal of one Ms. Lee (25), member of the graduating class of an upper-mid-level Seoul university, is to get a job in finance. Starting last July, she did a two-month internship at a branch of a securities company, where her superb evaluations caused her to be considered the top choice to be given a permanent position. However, she was unsuccessful.
A few days later, Ms. Lee even heard these shocking words from her superior: “I’m sorry, but we got instructions from headquarters to only hire men, so there’s nothing I could do.” Ms. Lee revealed, “Though at each branch, the ranked interns’ marks were much higher for women, at that time there was not a single woman among those hired as permanent employees. I think my dream was crushed for no other reason than that I’m a woman, and it’s not fair.”
Amid severe unemployment, female university students at the threshold of getting jobs are being frustrated and shedding tears. Through women’s increased high levels of education, “female wind” is blowing [female influence is making an impact] everywhere, but it has been confirmed that, in the job market, sexual discrimination in favor of male applicants is serious.
On Oct. 31, the results of an investigation by the Maeil Kyungjae newspaper into the gender ratios of new university graduates hired by 10 major domestic companies last year found that women made up 1 or 2 of every 10 hires. They averaged the percentages of new female employees and found it was 18.5%, not even 20%.
Broken down by company, Lotte Group was the highest at 27.5%, LG and SK were at 20%, GS was at 18%, and Hanhwa was at 17.1%. Hyundai Kia Motors was in the high teens, and Hyundai Heavy Industries had the lowest percentage of women among the recent university graduates they hired, at 9.7%.
Female college students looking for employment often appear in the corporate image advertisements of Doosan Group, which is gaining popularity among current university students, but it has become known that the ratio of female new employees at this company, at 18.8%, is very low. A Doosan official said, “The nature of this business is [requires] an overwhelmingly high percentage of men and so a pretty low ratio of women.” Hanjin limited the range [of information] made public to some subsidiaries like Korean Air, and Samsung refused to release any information.
According to the National Statistical Office, the number of female university graduates last year, at 271,773, outstripped that of male graduates (268,223) for the first time in 10 years. However, the number of female graduates who were unemployed was 142,000, the highest on record.
In the end, it is being noted that there is a lack of arrangements for institutional groundwork from which businesses can actively hire talented women. Experts have emphasized that businesses need to take notice of strengths that only women possess, like delicacy, softness, thoughtfulness, and communicative ability and so change their perceptions at the level of corporate strategy. Kim Wang-bae, a sociology professor at Yonsei University, explained, “As we become a post-industrial society, ‘software society,’ which represents delicacy, is becoming emphasized over ‘hardware society,’ which symbolizes masculinity. Because businesses that excel at capturing consumer demands survive, it is necessary to maximize the strengths of female personnel.” (end)
fivijis143
As always, news like this strongly challenges narratives of a glorious future of Korean grrrl power that pervade the English language media about Korea (see here for a discussion of the above video). But I confess I was still shocked at the figures above, although perhaps I shouldn’t have been when even an implicit advocate of women’s rights like Kim Wang-bae above subscribes to the same delicate women / tough men worldview that Doosan Group does!
source: naver, the grand narrative, KoreanLabor, fivijis143
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The number might not be as big, but it's the same worldwide
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Everything bring us to think that man are more efficient and that's a shame.
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I'm just saying that most culture raised their children in the belief that women are less efficient when it comes to work.
And the examples you're using are the reason why I somehow understand the situation, at least from a employer pov. It is true that pregnancy could come in conflict with work.
However not all women want to have children and thus the situation is unfair to them too.
I somehow get the feeling that because women are meant to give life, which is supposed to be the most wonderful thing, they are punished when it comes to work.
It's life I guess but it still bugging me.
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even the supporters are sexist :/
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This is still a country where women grow up being told a flight attendant, a bank teller, or a teacher is the best job as that'll get you a good husband. Urg.
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;-; story of my life
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Especially this part: “The nature of this business is [requires] an overwhelmingly high percentage of men and so a pretty low ratio of women.”
Really? Cuz a female cannot do the same job of a man? I know the Doosan Group works with nuclear power and such... but I don't get why that has to be a "man's job".
Ridiculous.
Actually, it's really interesting, but there are theories that suggests that gender segregation started happening only as we introduced agriculture and we became sedentary societies. When we were hunters and gatherers, the job was split equally among genders.
Anywho, sometimes I feel like SK takes a step forward in making societal changes, but then they take two steps back because of their more traditional values *sigh*
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The jobs were splitt equally but certain jobs were "female" jobs while others were "male" jobs. The segregation existed at the time only it was based on physical ability.
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That is what my professor said as well. In the agrarian times, whatever they get from the field was spilt equally between men and women. It is only till the industrial revolution did the idea of men being the ones going out and working sink in.
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Women already had less rights and shares than men.
It was certainly enhanced during era like Middle Ages or the industrial revolution.
But it's not as recent as the industrial revolution.
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Women had to have a Guardian (usually a male family member or a very close family friend) and they would make every decision for the woman because women were considered to be too emotional for hard choices. They weren't allowed out of the house without their Guardian, in case their emotions got the better of them. That transferred to husband after marriage, and the woman, again, had absolutely no power due to, you guessed it, EMOTIONS! It was actually only after a woman was widowed that she could own land, take care of her own finances, and make her own choices.
Just about ever paper I wrote in my undergrad (Classical Studies FTW) was about women and women's role in ancient society.
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This is messed up. The fact that they are still privileging sex over ability especially when the female interns are the one getting higher marks depresses me.
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This whole thing is so out of order.
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This is so unacceptable, anywhere. I'm glad they're bringing attention to the issue of sexism in the hiring process. Baby steps. My cousin was working in a hostile, misogynistic environment and she was the 1 female in a lab full of males. A fucking Harvard graduate and she was still ignored/passed up.
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This is quite depressing to hear, but is relevant everywhere still sadly. Only difference is it's in your face that because you're a woman they won't hire you instead of getting "we don't think you'd be the right fit here, etc." and left wondering. Granted, doesn't make it any less frustrating.
Super wary about the fact Samsung refused to disclose the gender ratios of their hires. Automatically thinking their numbers must be really skewed.
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I think a big reason has to do with the Korean "tradition" of the female generally being the one who looks after the kid until he goes on to whatever school or kindergarten he would be going to, or at least they would have to take time off for pregnancy.
Also, due to the unfortunate amount of time that companies require you to interact off the clock (company parties, entertaining clients, etc.) I'm not surprised companies hesitate in hiring women, as they are afraid that their families will be the priority, therefore they will not devote the time necessary to attend these functions and won't become part of the "team". Sadly, with quite a few men, especially those that work with bigger corporations, they don't spend much time at home.
It's not uncommon for men who work in big cities with families in smaller towns to only see wives and children one time a week or less.
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So officialy the state would go "yeay study study whether you're women, black, muslimor red hair we love everyone" but in the end the fairy tale ends up whith graduation.
Not so long ago science school used to be boy school and literary school were girls school.
Women who want to study hard science are accepted but not encouraged and later on when times come to get a job their unlikely to be hired.
And I'm talking french situation. It's not official but that the reality, especially since the employment market is doing so bad.
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WAT
EXCUSE ME
NO
WTF
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