[Edaily Reporter Bang Bo-kyeong ] It has been revealed that the proportion of women among all executives still falls short of even one in ten. In particular, even in the finance and insurance sectors and the lodging and food service industries—which employ a large number of female workers—the proportion of female executives remained in the single digits.

According to the “2025 Status of Executive Officers by Gender at Companies Subject to Disclosure” released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 29th, the proportion of female executives at 3,240 companies subject to disclosure last year stood at 7.4%. This represents an increase of only 0.3 percentage points from the 7.1% recorded in 2024. This survey targeted companies that submitted business reports to the Financial Supervisory Service’s Electronic Disclosure System (DART) and also included data for 2023 and 2024, which had not been previously disclosed.

There was also a significant gender gap in the likelihood of being promoted to executive positions. While 2.3% of all Namsung employees held executive positions, only 0.5% of female employees did. While there was one male executive for every 43 male employees, the ratio for women was one for every 201. Less than half of the companies had even a single female executive. Out of a total of 3,240 companies, only 1,420 (43.8%) had female executives. However, this represented a 1.3 percentage point increase from the previous year.

The situation was different for publicly traded companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more. Of the 193 such companies, 97.9% had at least one female executive. This is because, under the current Capital Markets Act, listed companies with assets of 2 trillion won or more are prohibited from having a board of directors composed entirely of members of a single gender. However, female directors were concentrated among outside directors. While the proportion of female outside directors at these companies was 26.1%, female inside directors—who are responsible for day-to-day management within the company—accounted for only 4.1%. This suggests that the legal requirement to appoint more female directors has not sufficiently translated into the cultivation and promotion of female executives within these companies.

There were also significant disparities by industry. The education services sector had the highest proportion of female executives at 13.9%. This was followed by △business facility management and leasing services (12.8%) △professional, scientific, and technical services (12.5%) △real estate (10.9%) △wholesale and retail trade (9.9%), among others.

Conversely, there were industries where women face significant barriers to reaching executive positions despite their high representation in the workforce. In the finance and insurance sector, where women account for over 40% of the workforce, the proportion of female executives stood at just 2.4%. Similarly, the arts, sports, and leisure services sector and the accommodation and food services sector recorded rates of only 2.8% and 0.7%, respectively.

Companies that ranked among the top 20 in terms of the number of female executives and had a female executive ratio exceeding 10% included △CJ CheilJedang Corp. △Naver △MIRAE ASSET SECURITIES △AMOREPACIFIC CORPORATION △COSMAX, INC. △Kakao △LGCHEM,LTD. △CJ ENM CO., Ltd.

Won Min-kyung, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, emphasized, “While it is positive that the proportion of female executives at companies subject to disclosure requirements is steadily increasing, the fact that it remains below 10% and relies primarily on outside directors highlights its limitations,” adding, “We will strengthen institutional and policy support to ensure gender balance across all aspects of corporate operations, including internal talent development and promotion structures.”