Enhancing Gender Diversity across Society (KR0050)

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? This commitment was designed to improve gender diversity by enhancing genderbalanced participation across society and contribute to realizing the social value of gender equality

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Compared to the size of Korea’s economy, women’s participation in social and economic activities falls far behind. In particular, the glass ceiling still persists, with a low proportion of women in major decision-making positions. Increasing women’s representation will strengthen social diversity and inclusion, thereby laying the foundation for innovation and contributing to promoting fairness and enhancing national competitiveness. The public sector should spearhead these efforts for the private sector to follow suit. * Korea ranked last (29th) for 9 consecutive years in the Economist’s glass-ceiling index(Women in managerial positions: 15.4% in Korea, against an OECD average of 33.2%. Women in executive and board positions: 4.9% in Korea, against an OECD average of 25.6%)

What is the commitment? This commitment will be promoted separately by the public and private sector. The ministry will strengthen the institutional foundation for enhancing women’s participation and representation in the public sector by thorough implementation and management of the Women Leader Appointment Plan (2018-2022), established in November 2017. The Women Leader Appointment Plan is an inter-ministry joint plan which sets and promotes women appointment targets for 12 major public officials such as senior civil service officials; director-level officials in central and local governments; executives of public organizations; government committee members; principals, vice principals and national university professors; and military and police officers.

In 2019, the ministry launched a Public-Private Partnership for Gender Balanced, Inclusive Growth for the first time, based on the private sector’s autonomy and cooperation. Based on the partnership, voluntary agreements, consulting and other support measures for companies and related research will be promoted to increase gender diversity and women’s representation within companies. These efforts on the part of the public and private sector are expected to contribute to realizing gender equality across society and spreading fairness by reflecting a gender-balanced perspective in the policy and decision-making process and enhancing gender diversity in organizations and workplaces.

Appointment Targets for 2022 (12 categories) • (Senior civil service officials) 10.0% / (Director-level officials in central government headquarters) 25.0% / (Director-level officials in local governments) 22.5% • (Executives of public organizations) 23.0% / (Managers of public organizations) 28.0% / (Managers in local public enterprises) 11.0% • (National university professors) 19.1% / (Principals and vice principals) 45.0% / (Government committee members) 40.0% • (Military officers) 8.8% / Police 15.0% (7.0% Managers) / Coast guard 14.4% (2.9% Managers)

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? Specific plans to implement the commitment will also be promoted separately by the public and private sector. Implementation plans to increase women’s representation in the public sector will be established every year, to be assessed and managed on a semiannual basis. The public sector will continue to identify and address areas of improvement in systems to strengthen the foundation for women’s participation through close cooperation with competent ministries. To increase women’s representation in the private sector, voluntary agreements with companies will be extended, and information on the gender makeup of the executives of listed corporations will be researched and disclosed every year.

Exchange and Peer Learning N/A

Additional Information N/A

Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable Start Date End Date Assess yearly performance in increasing women’s representation in the public sector and establish implementation plans Previous December Next March Assess and publish performance related to increasing women’s representation in the public sector for the first half of the year Every July Every September Provide consulting on gender-balanced, inclusive growth Throughout the year - Research and disclose information on the gender makeup of listed corporations’executives Every July to September -

Action Plan Review

Commitment 2.1. Enhance gender diversity in all areas of society

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● This commitment has been clustered as: Social Inclusion (Commitments 2.1 and 2.2)

● Potential for results: Unclear

Results Report

Commitment 2. 1: Improve gender diversity in all sectors of society

This commitment aimed to increase women’s participation and representation in the public sector. By the end of 2022, Korea met or exceeded women’s appointment targets for certain categories of public officials as set out in the Plan to Enhance Gender Representation in the Public Sector. [6] The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) published the progress on appointment targets semi-annually. Overall, this resulted in small increases in the percentage of women government committee members, senior civil servants, director-level officials of central and local government, executives and managers of public organizations, managers of local public enterprises, national university professors, school principals and vice principals, as well as military, police, and coast guard officers. However, as the targets were modest, the commitment did not achieve sufficient proportional representation to empower women in government decision-making (representation rates and targets are listed in the endnote below). [7] As such, women’s participation rate in Korea’s public sector remained among the lowest in the OECD, [8] with a particularly acute for women from marginalized groups. Moving forward, a need to ambitiously increase diverse women’s leadership in government remains.

The commitment also worked to increase women’s participation and representation in the private sector. However, this did not have an open government lens. The MOGEF researched and disclosed the gender makeup of listed corporations’ executives once during the implementation period in August 2021 (4% in 2019, 4.5% in 2020, and 5.2% in 2021). [9] This fell short of the commitment’s planned regular disclosures. The ministry also provided Gender-Balanced Inclusive Growth consulting to 19–40 companies per year and signed voluntary “Gender-Balanced Inclusive Growth Partnership” agreements with 89 companies in 2020. As of November 2020, there were 100 voluntary agreements. [10] While not a planned milestone, the 2020 revision of the Capital Market Law to require companies with assets of more than 2 trillion won to have gender-diversified boards (i.e., not comprised on a single gender) also contributed to an increase in the number of women executives in the private sector. [11] However, women’s inclusion in Korea’s private sector also remained among the lowest in the OECD. [12]