In both new hires and promotions, the number of female employees in the corporate banking scene in Korea is growing.
“Among 1,002 Kookmin employees promoted on Jan. 9, 217 of them were women, which is a record high,” said Kim Dong-won, vice chief executive of Kookmin Bank.
The banking scene is one of Korea’s most traditionally conservative, male-dominated industries.
Besides promotions, the number of female college graduates hired for entry-level jobs at Kookmin Bank, Korea’s largest lender, again outnumbered males during the bank’s hiring season early this year.
According to Kookmin officials yesterday, the bank hired 233 employees in early 2007, of which 112 were women and 111 were men.
That also happened during the second half of 2004, when the number of the bank’s new entry-level college graduate female employees far outpaced their male peers, 79 to 31.
Kookmin is not alone.
During Korea Exchange Bank’s hiring session in the latter half of 2005, 17 out of the 30 applicants who passed the final interview were women. But six of the female applicants decided not to take the job at Korea Exchange.
“In the hiring season these days, female applicants in general tend to far exceed their male peers in written tests,” said one senior banking who refused to be named. “So it is hard to hire many male applicants unless we give them special treatment of some sort to balance the gender makeup out.”
by Choi Joon-ho,Jung Ha-won
