hankyoreh

There are more women entering the workforce, but a survey of workers shows that within the workplace there is a male-dominated corporate culture and a glass ceiling blocking female promotion.

On May 20, Saramin, a job portal site, released the findings of a survey of 570 workers conducted between March 25 and April 3, which asked whether this glass ceiling exists within the workplace. 71.6% of respondents answered that there is a glass ceiling, and females (80.4%) feel its presence much more than males (64.4%).

In descending order, the response rate of business was: medium sized businesses (75.7%), large corporations (74.2%), and SMEs (70%).

Within companies, the most common reason that people think the glass ceiling exists is because of a male-dominated culture (45.6%). The other answers: because important tasks are mainly handled by man (39.7%), there are few women in high positions (32.6%), men receive promotions more quickly (29.9%), and men’s salaries are higher (25%).

68.6% of female respondents think that they incurred losses due to the glass ceiling, in cases such as lower starting salaries compared to men’s (50.9%), men getting more chances to handle important tasks (33.7%), men receiving promotions first (31.4%), women having less influence on departmental transfer (11.4%).

Furthermore, on the possibility of promotion, 58.1% of men answered that promotion was possible, while only 31% of women thought so.

Respondents said that to improve the glass ceiling, the most important thing is infrastructure to improve work-life balance (31.2%). Improving the male-dominated workplace culture ranked second (22.5%), followed by improved awareness about women’s social participation (16.1%), improved treatment of female workers (13.3%), and improved government support and awareness (10.5%).

By Yoon Young-mi, senior staff writer