Recent government data confirmed a demographic change Korea had long been expecting to see this year: women outnumbering men. The number of women stood at 25,715,304 as of June, 492 more than the male population. This marked the first time women have outnumbered men since the government began compiling related data in 1960.
The reversed gender gap in the population is forecast to widen further as life expectancy for women is getting longer than that for men and the preference for boy babies has receded in Korean society. The gender ratio — the number of men to 100 women — is projected to dip to 97.8 by 2040.
Over the past decades, women have expanded their presence in various fields here, with the ratio of female high school graduates entering college exceeding that of male graduates for the fifth consecutive year in 2014. But Korea is far from changing its economic structure and social culture to adapt to the demographic change.
The ratio of economically active women, which remains at slightly over 50 percent, compared to more than 70 percent for men, is the lowest among the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The average wage of female employees accounts for less than 70 percent of that of male workers. The figure was far lower than the levels of other major developed nations, which range from 75 percent to 90 percent. More than half of female employees work on an irregular basis, while about a third of male workers do so.
The ratio of women in Korean corporate boardrooms remains below 2 percent, with the corresponding figures standing at 36.1 percent in Norway and 14.1 percent in Germany.
Given the country’s working-age population is forecast to begin shrinking in the not too distant future, encouraging more women — especially well-educated ones — to join the workforce is urgently needed to keep the growth engine going and boost national competitiveness.
The number of Koreans aged 15-64 will peak at 37.04 million in 2016 before being reduced by more than 10 million to 25.34 million by 2050, according to government statistics. Working-age people are forecast to account for 49.7 percent of the population in 2060, by which time their number is estimated to further decrease to 21.87 million.
A study by a local research institute estimated that increasing the ratio of economically active women in the country to the OECD average of 61.5 percent in 2009 will lead to a 14 percent gain in its per capita gross national income, which reached $28,101 last year.
It should be noted that employing and promoting more female staff, whose sensitivity is becoming increasingly valuable under changing business conditions, has led to strengthening corporate efficiency and profitability in most advanced countries.
Continuous efforts should be made to enhance the balance between work and family and help foster family-friendly corporate culture and social environment. With traditional patriarchal culture lingering, many married women are driven into shouldering the double burden of job obligations and housework. Nearly 20 percent of married women aged 15-64 have left the labor force after they married, became pregnant or gave birth.
More specific policies need to be implemented to enable more female employees to work flexible hours or from home. Korean men should also assume more responsibility at home and become genuine partners of their spouses.
