International Workshop on "Women and Science / Technology" Network in Asia

This presentation is to review what happened to women in S&T in Korea during the last decade with the WISE(Women Into Science & Engineering) policy, to evaluate it and to make some suggestions for better future. In addition, it provides statistics on women in S&T in Korea for comparative analysis among Asian countries.
The issue of WISE policy was begun when leading women scientists and engineers recognized the big gap between women educated in S&T and women employed in R&D. In 2000, women are 52% among BA in science and 18% in engineering. Though in engineering, women at higher degrees were almost invisible, they were 35% of MA and 22% of PhD in science. In contrast to this high proportion in education, only 10% of R&D researcher was women.
Concerning with the issue, the Korean government institutionalized WISE policy. the Act of Fostering and Supporting Women in S&T was passed. And according to the Act, 5-year (master) plan for WISE was initiated and the NIS-WIST(National Institute for Women in S&T) was established as the central organization to carry out researches and many programs. Among the programs were comprehensive statistics on women in S&T, mentoring, R&E projects, Women only R&D fund, Recruitment Target System(RTS), and etc.
During the last decade, the percentage of women in science and engineering at every level has been increasing gradually. In science, women became more than half in BA, almost half in MA. Even among PhD in science, women are almost 1/3, the minimum for self-sustaining set by UNESCO. Women in engineering also have been growing, though relatively slower than in science. Further, women in R&D increased from 10% in 2000 to 16.7% in 2010. It is not clear how much the result was due to the WISE policy. However, we can say, at least, the WISE policy have some positive influence on the growth at graduate level and R&D employment.
Unlike the quantitative result, statistical analysis shows the possibility of the so called leaky pipe phenomena at every stage of life cycle: lower proportion of women in R&D than in education and fewer women at high positions and regular positions than men. It means that WISE policy should put more attention to entry stage of job market and support women to keep and develop their careers.
To build life cycle support system for women in S&T is the major goal of the 2nd 5 year plan (2009-2013). Existing programs were reorganized and some new programs were introduced for this goal: Promotion Target System(PTS), work-family reconciliation, and returner program. The idea is that the more successful working women in S&T, the more girls going into S&T.
To achieve the goal, WISE policy needs to be integrated in labour policy in general. And it needs to develop policy means to encourage the private sector, in both R&D or non-R&D, to hire more women in S&T.