ABSTRACT
Many people predicted that as the twentieth century progressed, feminization of the global labour force would accelerate. South Korea was not an exception to this expectation. Indeed, in the past 20 years Korea's utilization of female labour has increased (Korean Women's Development Institute, 2003). Some improvements followed equal employment laws, but discrimination remained. One survey of women undergraduate students seeking jobs found 94 per cent thought that they had more difficulties than men (Korean Occupational Ability Development, 1999) 1 . As the reason for this, 64.5 per cent thought that enterprises discriminated against women and 63 per cent believed that the reason for difficult job entry was that the large conglomerates preferred men. In Korea, employment for women was often more difficult than for men. The concentration of women in specific jobs, departments and sectors, shorter tenure and pay inequality, were indicators of this. Also, the form and level of women in employment remained limited, with the lowest female manager rate among OECD countries (ILO, 2001).
