Study: World Cup led to more female lawyers

Posted on : 2012-11-21 14:06 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
SNU professor finds that in years the tournament took place, more female applicants passed the legal exam
 supporters of the South Korean national soccer team at Seoul City Hall Square during the 2002 World Cup.
supporters of the South Korean national soccer team at Seoul City Hall Square during the 2002 World Cup.

By Park Hyun-chul, staff reporter

An interesting set of research results has shown that the World Cup, which takes place once every four years, has contributed to an increase in the number of female lawyers in South Korea.

In a paper titled “Did the Red Devils Bring Diversity to the Ranks of Korean Lawyers?” Seoul National University professor of political science and diplomacy Park Jong-hee argues, “With the impact of the World Cup, a total of 106 more women passed the bar examination from 2006 and 2010, since the year 2000.”

Prof. Park supported the causal relationship between the World Cup and test results scientifically, based on the idea that the World Cup occurring in June once every four years coincides with the second-round of bar examinations, which takes place at the end of June.

The paper showed that the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan (May 31-June 30), the 2006 World Cup in Germany (June 9-July 9) and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (June 11-July 11) were all held ahead of second-round bar exams. Prof. Park presumed that the popularity of the soccer games had sharply increased starting in 2002 when the South Korean national team reached the semifinals, and 2006 and 2010 World Cup games might have affected the exam results.

Park compared the number of females who passed the second-round exams every year between 1996 and 2011 to that of females who passed the exam in 2006 and 2010 when the World Cup was held. As a result of it, it was found that an exceptionally high number of women passed the exam in 2006 and in 2010.

After verifying the results by regression analysis, which comprehensively analyzes the co-relation of variables, Park concluded that among 375 and 388 who passed the second-round test in 2006 and 2010, respectively, a total of 106 were attritubable to the World Cup effect.

“Males tend to concentrate more on the World Cup and lose focus on the test while female applicants, who are less enthusiastic about soccer games, might reap the benefits,” explained Prof. Park.

“Consequently, the World Cup has helped to raise the gender diversity of the legal profession.” He also pointed out, “There is one lawyer for every 5,178 people in South Korea, which is very low compared to the US where there is one for every 256, so the effects of the World Cup are more noteworthy given the size of legal industry in South Korea.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories

Most viewed articles