Korean 'alpha girls' put job stability first


Smart women consider merit-based jobs more attractive than elected posts

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Staff reporter

Why do smart, self-confident and highly educated young women consider non-elected jobs within government more attractive than elected posts for their careers?

Over the past two decades, local women's groups have fought for gender equality, but despite their efforts, the pace of growth of women legislators is disappointingly slow.

The ratio of women lawmakers to men who joined the National Assembly in 2008 was merely 13.7 percent, an increase of only one percentage point from the elections that were held four years ago.

Instead of seeking elected posts, a swarm of talented young women take the state-run exam to become diplomats.

The ratio of entry-level female diplomats to men at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has soared over the past decade. Its latest figure reached 48.8 percent in 2009. Entry-level women diplomats accounted for a record high 66 percent in 2008.

These female career diplomats are young, over-achieving and self-confident. The average age of those who were selected in the state exam was 26.

"Aspiring politicians should have a strong network with party leaders or prominent politicians to be chosen in the selection of candidates to run in elections on a party ticket," columnist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Lee Na-mi told The Korea Times.

"Generally speaking, women tend to demonstrate relatively poor networking skills with influential politicians, compared with men."

Lee also observed that women's inclination of putting job stability first when making their career choice also appears to affect their preference of permanent government jobs over elected posts featuring high risk high returns.

Prof. Christopher Berry of the University of Chicago told The Korea Times that voter bias against women still exists in elections, whereas non-elected jobs in government tend to be more merit-based, prompting smart women to consider non-elected government jobs as more attractive.

The ratio of women lawmakers to men in the U.S. Congress is as low as that of Korea.

Women lawmakers accounted for only 17 percent in each chamber of Congress and women held only 24.3 percent of the seats in state legislatures last year.

"Despite progress that has been made, voters still discriminate against women. In the United States, about 11 percent of adults say they would not vote for a qualified woman for president and another 11 percent say they would vote for a woman only 'with reservations,'" he said.

"These levels are higher than the fraction saying they would not vote for an African American, for example. They also probably understate the true level of discrimination, because respondents tend to underreport discriminatory views in surveys."

By contrast, Prof. Berry said, non-elective jobs within the government tend to be more merit-based as in civil service systems and therefore women would likely not face the same type of discrimination they face in elections.

In a joint paper, titled "The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect," Prof. Berry and Stanford University researcher Sarah Anzia found that qualified women express greater hesitation about running for office than similarly qualified men.

In an e-mail interview with The Korea Times, Dan Kindlon, the author of New York Times bestseller book "Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She Is Changing the World", said that some of the discouragement to women may come from the difficulty in balancing work and family.

"In countries such as Sweden with very strong pro-women/family policies, rates of women (in elective posts) in government are quite high," he said.

Daughters of patriarchal period

In his book, Kindlon characterized alpha girls as talented, highly motivated and self-confident young women born in the 1980s.

"American girls today are the daughters of the revolution ― the first generation that is reaping the full benefits of the women's movement," he said.

Unlike their American counterparts, the alpha girls in Korea are the daughters of a relatively hostile society underpinned by the pervasive phenomenon of preferring sons.

Sex ratios at birth rose steeply until the mid-1990s in Korea.

The World Bank report, titled "Why Is Son Preference Declining in South Korea?" and published in 2007, found that the phenomenon of son preference had decreased in response to development but its manifestation continued until the mid-1990s due to improved sex-selection technology.

"Nearly three-quarters of the decline in son preference between 1991 and 2003 is attributable to normative change and the rest to the increase in proportion of urban and educated people," the report said.

The Korea Institute of Child Care and Education survey in 2008 of 2,078 parents who had infants hinted that most recently son preference has almost disappeared.

The survey found that more parents hoped to have daughters when they were expecting a newborn.

The World Bank report indicated that Korean alpha girls were raised when the phenomenon of son preference still existed in the society, although it was waning.

They spent their adolescent years when the gender movement here had just begun.

Considering the existence of son preference, girls might have had to survive sibling competition to gain more parental affection, family resources and investment.

And probably these girls might have learned how to win competitions in their family from a young age, making them at least as competent as their male counterparts in academic performance and career.

Women in politics vs. women in civil service

Data showed that much more self-confident, well-educated and intelligent young women born in the 1980s chose jobs in non-elected posts in government, causing a deep gap between the ratio of women in civil service and that of women in politics.

The ratio of women lawmakers to men who joined the National Assembly in 1996 was 3 percent and the figure for 2000 rose slightly to 5.3 percent. In 2004, women legislators accounted for 12.7 percent.

Growth in the ratio of women lawmakers to men was very slow, compared with the sharp increase of women diplomats.

In 1993, only one woman passed the state-run foreign service exam. But the ratio of entry-level women diplomats to men has soared since 2000.

A former lawyer, Rep. Kim Young-sun told The Korea Times that elected posts require women to have comprehensive skills, including strong inter-personal and social networking skills, as a successful politician.

"Passing exams that are heavily competitive or rising to a higher position in a chain of command at a workplace is a different story from being elected a lawmaker," she said.

"To be elected, candidates should demonstrate their ability to address issues, they need to be likable, and they also need to be engaging with people."

The lawmaker said men more easily exhibit these skills than women.