QUALIFIED, TRAINED AND NOWHERE TO GO
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Young female graduates face deep-rooted
job-hunt discrimination
Jeong Yoon-ji, 26, graduated from the prestigious Sookmyeong Women’s University last year and like many of her peers had dreams of working for one of Korea’s big companies. With a high GPA, a double major in French and economics, and a year and a half of internship experience in the U.S., she thought her chances were pretty good.
But earlier this year, she was cut before the final round in her most recent attempt at securing a job. “I need to submit another application,” said Jeong, who has been unemployed for more than six months. “Instead of me, they hired a guy who is overall less qualified.”
Jeong believes that gender plays a major part in why even competitive female job-seekers like her struggle to find jobs.
In a survey of company recruitment managers conducted by Korean employment portal site Saramin, 72.2 percent said they prefer male candidates over female. In big companies, 86.7 percent prefer male workers when they choose new employees, while 70.9 percent of small and medium-sized companies say they prefer men to women.
The discrimination is seen not only in major companies, but also in schools and private academies. “There aren’t many male teachers in Korean schools, so most school officials want to hire more male teachers,” said Nam Yoo-kyung, a temporary teacher at a high school in Daegu.
Gender discrimination is seen even in teacher’s exams, especially for private schools, she says. While public school teachers must accrue a minimum score after three steps to pass the national teacher’s exam, private schools usually require an in-person interview on their teaching practices. In this process, says Nam, school board members prefer male candidates to female because of the absence of male teachers in the classroom, as the career is popular mostly among women. “If there is one male and one female candidate, the school is more likely to hire the man over the woman if their scores are not very different.”
With Korea’s economy squeezed by global pressures and its workforce saturated by overqualified candidates, youth unemployment for both men and women has hovered above 8 percent since 2010, according to the Ministry of Labor. Even after years of studying to earn degrees from top universities, the highest-qualified graduates are still struggling to secure good jobs. More than 1 in 4 doctoral graduates from Seoul National University, regarded as one of Korea’s most prestigious universities, is unemployed, compared to 15 percent in 2009, a survey by the school revealed.
Job-seeking women are faced with an extra challenge when employers factor in their potential long-term stay at the company -— and potential leave. Private companies are also wary of paying more or offering other benefits for women such as maternity leave and child care. According to Statistics Korea, 1 in 5 female workers quits her job due to marriage, pregnancy or childbirth. Making matters worse, the career disruption is most common among women in their 20s and 30s, the age of their highest working capacity. The length of time before women leave their jobs is also quite short — 41.5 percent leave after one to three years, 21.5 percent after three to five years, and 15.5 percent after less than one year. In other words, 3 out of 4 married women who go through career disruption lose their job within five years.
“I’ve seen many of my other friends, who are well qualified, fail to get into good companies, (even if) they prepared a lot. I have failed several times so far, too. One girl in my job preparation study group, who graduated from a top school and had perfect qualifications, failed when she applied for a big conglomerate,” said Jeong, the Sookmyeong Women’s University graduate. “But one girl who is quite attractive got a job as the secretary of a chairperson at a big company. She just graduated from a women’s college that is not regarded as a good school.”
Jeong wants to join a large company for the many more benefits for women than at small companies, she added. “That is a big reason why many female job seekers, including me, want to find a job in governmental agencies or big corporations, which are fairly well known for taking care of their female workers’ welfare.”
According to the Hankook Ilbo, steelmaking conglomerate POSCO won an award from the deputy prime minister for economic affairs for having the best company welfare program. Its welfare benefits have made it a top company for job seekers in Korea, especially among women. The company has many breastfeeding rooms and nurseries to care for working moms’ children during the day, and was even the first company to hire women who are married with children for its production lines, according to the article. “But the reality is that it is very hard to find companies like POSCO that offer consistently good welfare benefits. Except for the few well-known companies or public-sector jobs, most companies want to save money,” Jeong added.
Nam, the temporary teacher, graduated from teacher’s college and hopes to secure a job as a public school teacher. She said she preferred working in a public school because of the stability that the job offers. According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper, female public school teachers and public servants almost never quit their jobs due to pregnancy, maternity leave or breaks for child care.
“I don’t need to worry about using one or two years of maternity leave if I become a public school teacher. It is only public schools that can provide yearlong breaks without women having to worry about whether their belongings are packed when they come back to their desks. This is the most attractive advantage to teacher’s college graduates who spend years preparing to pass the teacher’s exam.”
On top of the job-hunting struggles, many young women say they can’t even talk about their future jobs with their parents. Often, there is a high chance that there will be a disparity between their dreams for themselves and what their parents want them to be. Korean parents who have a conservative point of view toward their daughters tend to want them to find secure jobs like teaching or public service because of traditional responsibilities such as child care, pregnancy and homemaking. However, the situation has been improving over time amid dynamic changes to Korea’s economy and cultural diversity since the 1980s.
Lee Kyung-min, 26, a biotechnology graduate student at Seoul National University, said her parents’ expectations that she would have a prestigious job like her father, a doctor, influenced her career decisions. She tried interning at a big pharmaceutical company in 2012 but quit from the stress after working four months, which her parents were not happy about. “Every time I try to say something about what I’m going to do after getting my master’s degree, I’m afraid that my parents, especially my mom, won’t like my ideas and will make me follow their plan in the end. My mom wants me to continue studying and get a doctorate degree but I really don’t know about that. I’m still considering whether to do research for several more years to get a Ph.D., or to go into a company right after getting my master’s degree.”
Oh Won-kyung, 26, a linguistics graduate student at Ewha Womans University, said that she wanted to apply for a Ph.D. overseas, but her parents disapproved and wanted her to get a stable job like theirs after finishing grad school so that she could marry and settle down faster. She tussled with her parents about her career, but ultimately persuaded them and has been studying for the Graduate Record Examination so she can later apply for a Ph.D. in the U.S. “Sometimes I feel stuck when I talk with my parents and my family starts to discuss my future plans. But I really want to pursue my career and hopefully become a professor one day.”
Oh added that the reason she wants to be a professor is to be regarded as one who has reached the top of her field of study and to develop her career as a scholar when she is older. “It is extremely hard for women to succeed at the same level as men in Korean society if they don’t have either a good family background or other external factors,” she said. “In the field of linguistics, however, after successfully earning my Ph.D. and becoming a professor, I am sure I will be able to be acknowledged as the best expert regardless of my gender.”
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