Glass ceiling in S. Korea still hard to crack: poll

Seoul skyline (Courtesy of Gary Craig via Flickr/Creative Commons)

SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) — Seven out of 10 workers in South Korea think that there is a thick glass ceiling in their workplace, a poll showed Wednesday, demonstrating that the local work environment is still dogged by patriarchal remnants of the country’s once-dominant Confucian culture.

According to the poll conducted by a local job search portal on 570 office workers, 71.6 percent said a glass ceiling exists at their workplace.

Of those female respondents, 80.4 percent said they feel there is a glass ceiling, 64.4 percent of the male respondents said the same, the survey showed.

The poll showed that some 76 percent of employees at mid-sized firms responded that a glass ceiling still exists, while 74.2 percent at large corporations and 70 percent at small companies also gave the same reply.

Some 46 percent attributed the glass ceiling to a male-oriented workplace culture, the poll showed. Also, they pinpointed other reasons such as male workers receiving more major projects and a lack of females executives.

A total of 68.6 percent of female respondents said they are still at a disadvantage over their male counterparts, according to the survey. The polled said they receive less pay and have less opportunities for major projects compared to their male colleagues. Male workers are also moving up the corporate ladder more quickly, the survey showed.

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