While the share of women among executives at major Korean companies has been steadily increasing, the proportion of inside directors who can substantially participate in company management has instead declined. It also showed that the higher the share of female employees, the narrower the path for women to be promoted to executive roles.

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Leaders Index, a corporate analysis research institute, analyzed the status of female executives at 394 companies among the top 500 by domestic sales that submitted first-quarter reports this year, and found that out of a total of 15,370 executives, 1,268 were women, accounting for 8.2%. The share of female executives has been on a steady upward trend, at 7.3% in 2024 and 8.1% last year. In 2022, the Capital Markets Act was amended to prevent listed companies with assets of 2 trillion KRW or more from composing boards with only one gender.

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However, narrowing the scope to registered directors who make up boards shows a decrease in female inside directors and an increase in female outside directors. In total, female registered directors rose from 295 (11.3%) in 2024, to 344 (12.8%) in 2025, and 377 (13.6%) in the first quarter of this year. Among them, female inside directors fell from 53 to 51, while female outside directors increased sharply from 242 to 326. As a result, the share of inside directors among female registered directors declined from 18% to 13.5%, and the share of outside directors rose from 82% to 86.5%. Leaders Index stated, “This shows that the expansion of participation by women on boards, the highest corporate decision-making body, is being achieved mainly through the appointment of outside directors,” and “It reveals the structural limits to expanding female leadership.”

It also found that the larger the proportion of female employees, the fewer the opportunities for women to advance to executive posts. Among the 290 companies with 500 or more total employees and comparable data for the past three years, the average ratio of female executives to female employees at the 47 companies where women made up more than 50% of staff was 0.2%, below the overall average (0.3%). At these companies, the ratio of male executives to male employees was 1.4%, the same as the overall average. At the 243 companies where women accounted for less than 50% of employees, the female executive-to-female employee ratio averaged 0.4%, twice that of female-dominated companies.

The gender gap was pronounced in the financial sector. Of the top 10 companies with the largest gaps between male and female executive-to-employee ratios, six were financial firms, including Mirae Asset Asset Management, Kiwoom Securities, DB Securities, IBK Investment & Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and Woori Financial Capital. At Mirae Asset Asset Management, 24.9% of male employees advanced to executive positions, compared with 3.1% of female employees. At Kiwoom Securities, the male executive-to-male employee ratio was 10.0%, while the female executive-to-female employee ratio was 0.9%.