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Korean Women in Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities

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Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership

Part of the book series: Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership ((CPAWL))

Abstract

The status of women leaders in Korea is still considered token because only a small number of women achieve leadership positions, not yet reaching 15% in all sectors, except the political sector, where 51 women (17%) were selected in the 2016 parliamentary election. Korea occupies one of the lowest women representation in senior roles, boards, and executive committees in Asia and in the world. Korean women’s low status in global rankings is quite alarming given the nation’s prestigious status as a world economic power. Why has Korea’s remarkable economic success failed to translate into women’s corresponding status? In this chapter, we attempted to answer this driving question, though there is no single answer. We reviewed literature on women in leadership in Korea and shared the study results we found from our recent research on women leaders in Korea. We begin with our operational definition of women leaders, provide statistical analysis of women’s participation in the labor market, discuss challenges and opportunities women leaders face, and present research agendas for further investigation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

    Yonjoo Cho

  2. Research Institute for HRD Policy, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

    Hyounju Kang

  3. Department of Learning and Performance Systems, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jiwon Park

Authors
  1. Yonjoo Cho
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  2. Hyounju Kang
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  3. Jiwon Park
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yonjoo Cho .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Yonjoo Cho

  2. Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Rajashi Ghosh

  3. The University of Texas-Tyler, Tyler, Texas, USA

    Judy Y. Sun

  4. McLean Global Consulting, Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

    Gary N. McLean

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Cho, Y., Kang, H., Park, J. (2017). Korean Women in Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Cho, Y., Ghosh, R., Sun, J., McLean, G. (eds) Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership. Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54996-5_6

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