Only 3% of local government companies are led by women

Only 3 in 100 heads of companies funded by metropolitan or provincial governments are women, according to a report released Tuesday.

Of the 396 chiefs of corporations funded by local governments, only 11 were women as of September, Rep. Yoon Jae-ok of the Liberty Korea Party said in his analysis of the data received from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Only 5 percent, or 81 of the 1,534 executives, were women.

By region, the CEOs of companies funded by the metropolitan or provincial governments of Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Sejong, Gangwon, South Chungcheong, North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Jeju, were all men.

Those in Daegu, South Jeolla, Sejong and Jeju also had zero women executives.

Among the 17 metropolitan and provincial governments, Gyeonggi Province had 108 corporations under its wing, and therefore had the joint-largest number of female chiefs – three.

As for Seoul City, three out of 30 state-funded companies under it were led by women CEOs.

Of the 30 CEOs newly appointed to head the state-funded companies under local governments after the June 13 local elections, only one is a woman.

“The president has raised the ratio of women ministers to 30 percent, and the central government plans to raise the ratio of female senior officials to 10 percent by 2020, but the glass ceiling in metropolitan and provincial state-funded companies still seems hard to break,” Yoon said.

“As the nation prepares for decentralization of power, local governments should make efforts to encourage women’s social participation through achieving more balance in its personnel appointments.”

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)