Glass ceiling in Korea; can we break it?

By John Walker

President Park Geun-hye has smashed through the “glass ceiling” in Korean politics. A woman has become the President of Korea. The world has been surprised and pleased to see this.

The question on many people’s lips now is whether the glass ceiling of the business world can be similarly broken in Korea.

There are of course a number of senior women in Korean corporations, quite a few of whom are related to the original family founders.

The next question is whether women from all walks of life will have the same opportunity to make their way to the top in their chosen professions.

This is a very complex issue with many components such as culture and history.

However, if we narrow the issue down to the financial sector, the world of banks, securities companies and asset management companies, the issues may be at least a little more digestible.

As I am responsible for the Asian region in my job, I often interact with very senior executives across the region and particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore.

There is no doubting that the number of very senior women in these successful financial hubs is quite striking when compared to Korea.

Last year FinanceAsia published a list of the top 20 women in finance in Asia and of these 12 were from Hong Kong or Singapore and none from Korea.

There are also, incidentally, markedly more people from many foreign countries in very senior positions in the finance sector in these hub cities.

These are very successful financial centers that have clearly benefited from a whole range of enlightened regulatory and other issues but, at its essence, finance is a people business and success is all about people and their talents.

I believe it is a reasonable proposition that these two cities have benefitted from a very broad talent pool, irrespective of sex or ethnic background.

To expand on this, overwhelmingly the talent that graduates from the world’s leading finance schools and moves to Asia relocates to either Hong Kong or Singapore. These include many young women.

This is a sensitive issue to address but in the interests of the ongoing development of Korea’s financial industry, it must be highlighted.

There are of course many impediments to the ability of Korea to access the broadest possible talent pool and, to its credit, Seoul has been addressing many of these.

Foreign schools are now plentiful and English is much more widely spoken — but still not common in the domestic financial sector.

Some good attempts have been made through initiatives such as job fairs to attract more foreign talent but this is all to no avail while Korean financial institutions do not modernize and internationalize the workplace and achieve a more global standing.

This issue is not one where responsibility lies solely with the financial institutions themselves.

The issue of women having real paths to senior promotion is also an issue where the government, which has the ability to influence many underlying factors, has to take a role.

For the full potential of the available workforce to be achieved, there needs to be an environment where women from all walks of life can have both a professional and family life.

In Korea and other parts of Asia, the traditional extended family approach is breaking down and family members are not always available to care for children or the elderly, and the availability of outside support is becoming increasingly important.

Whilst there may be much theorizing and debate about how this can be achieved, there are some clear distinctions between Korea and Singapore and Hong Kong.

Examples of initiatives are numerous, but in Singapore there are plentiful childcare centers where the government provides meaningful subsidies for care and tuition fees.

Also, many foreign financial institutions make provision for part-time work, job-sharing and other such plans in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Importantly, in these two cities there is explicit provision in the immigration laws to allow and encourage domestic household workers from emerging countries to work lawfully under regulated contracts at reasonable salary rates, which are superior to what they would be able to make in their home countries.

Indeed, for the Philippines, such employment is one of the mainstays of the economy with the remittances workers send back home.

Allowing foreign domestic workers results in a win-win situation. Foreign workers are employed under transparent contracts that protect their rights and provide them with security.

Women in the host country are more easily able to participate in the workforce and so enjoy the benefits of a career, including promotion and improving salaries.

Better childcare and changes in immigration laws are just some of the many things that need to happen to bring aspiring women finance executives to the fore in Korea.

Countries that specifically provide avenues for women in finance benefit from sound and growing financial sectors that result from having the broadest range of talent.

It is to be hoped that the new era heralded by the election of Korea’s first woman president will allow this win, win, win for Korea’s business and financial sector.