정모주제 3월 23일 (금) - 영어 실력이 향상 될 수 있도록 각자 준비해 오세요 ~

[Joy-박]

For Korean women, glass ceiling is more like concrete  - prepared by Joy from Korean Times

“Glass ceiling” is a universal term for describing the barriers preventing more women reaching the top echelons of the corporate world. But to many working women in Korea, who have experienced the limitations to their opportunities as being blatant and often unbreakable, the ceiling has to be looking more like concrete.
It’s almost too easy to meet a female employee who will express frustration about the pace of her advancement at the workplace. While policymakers here continue to speechify about progressing equality between the sexes and improving corporate prospects for women, most employers remain indifferent about smashing the metaphorical ceiling, glass or whatever. There are only a handful of female chief executive officers (CEOs) among the top Korean companies and half of them are daughters of the parent group’s chairman.
A study found that less than 1 percent of Korean firms that hire more than 1,000 employees have female CEOs. Only 17 percent of the companies’ mid-level managers were women, while the proportion of female executives was just over 6 percent. In comparison, 3.6 percent of the global firms that make Fortune magazine’s Fortune 500 list were led by female CEOs, a six-fold increase from 0.6 percent in 2000.

“Korean firms will talk about employing more female executives every year when the season for personnel decisions come. However, it’s hard to expect them to increase the number of female CEOs when the pool of candidates among female executives is so shallow,” said SERI researcher Kim Jae-won.
As remote a possibility as it is, enforcing a quota on Korean companies to get more women in their boardrooms might not be the answer in a country where a large chunk of female employees are sidelined from payrolls before they even get to sniff at management positions.
Government figures confirm‎ that women in their 30s are dropping out of the workplace at an alarming rate and their lack of freedom in setting a work-life balance has been identified as the culprit. The pay gap between men and women also remains wide, so when couples get to discuss how they are going to afford childcare, it’s normally the wife who stays at home.
Economic activity among women aged between 25 and 29 was measured at 69.8 percent in 2010.However, the figure dropped dramatically to 54.6 percent for women aged between 30 and 34, the pressure of working long hours and a lack of maternity support taking a toll on mothers with young children.
On average, a female employee earned less than 70 percent of what her male counterpart took home last year. And the employment statistics for women are padded by casual and precarious jobs to more of a degree than men, Statistics Korea said.
In recent years, government officials here have worked hard to introduce family-friendly policies, such as expanding tax benefits, providing longer maternity leave and establishing more daycare places for children of working mothers. But the effects of such changes have been subdued, thanks in part to a large number of companies reluctant to make significant changes to their working environment. Korea’s inability to take advantage of the glut in the female workforce is alarming when more old people, combined with a declining working age population, are resulting in murkier projections for long-term economic growth.
Korea currently has one of the lowest birth rates among maturing economies, with its 2010 figure standing at 1.22 births per woman, well below the 1.71 average of Organization for Economic Cooperation for Development (OECD) nations.

1.     Have you ever felt that there is an invisible glass ceiling in our society ?  Tell us about it.

2.     Where do you think such practices of male-oriented system in our workplace came from ?

3.     Why do you think such system has been widely spread and taken for granted ?

4.     Do you think you are doing your best to understand situation and make difference at personal level, at least or are you indifferent in this kind of matter ?

5.     If you were a husband whose wife is competent in her workplace which means more salary than yours and either or you have to take care of children, are you willing to quit and take childcare at home ?  If you were a woman competent in your workplace and has potential for promotion, will you push your husband to quit a job and take care of children ?

6.     In order to set things more balanced, what should be fundamentally done ?  In terms of society, policy, way of thinking, etc.

7.  Make your own questions.

[Kelly(현희)]

챠암슥~~~~~

[kuma.두홍]

가암~~사^^ㅎㅎ

[A-young.아영]

참석합니다.^^

[kuma.두홍]

감사감사감사 ㅠㅠ........................... 감사요

[silver.미은]

참석할게요:)

[kuma.두홍]

넘 올만이세요~~ㅎㅎ 쿰이 잘 참석못해서리 ㅎㅎ

[Eileen연주]

길어...글애두 갈려구요..ㅠㅠ

[kuma.두홍]

ㅎㅎ 와서 인생살이나 얘기하까??ㅎㅎ

[철없는Cathy(경희)]

늦게라도 참석할께요, 요즘 너무 바빠서 죄송합니다...

[kuma.두홍]

ㅠㅠ 그러면 쿰은 몸둘자리를 모르겠네요...

[Jerry,영선]

참석합니다.

[kuma.두홍]

늘 감사드립니다~~

[ultra(민권)]

지참합니다~

[kuma.두홍]

감사감사^^ㅎ

[몽키D루피(추노)]

참석요..토픽 감사합니다..^^

[kuma.두홍]

ㅎㅎㅎ감사합니다.. 본명으로 해주심이 ㅎㅎㅎ

[RobinY]

지참합니다.

[Sunny.선희]

참석합니다.^^

[Hoya.정호]

좀 늦을꺼같지만 봐주세욤..^^;

[pfoi914]

참석합니다