South Korea: Women Face Double Discrimination in the Workplace
Author: Faryal Fatima
September 10, 2026
HRRC condemns workplace discrimination based on gender and age and supports equal employment opportunities and fair treatment for women of all ages.
Systemic gender discrimination against women exists in South Korea at all stages of their working lives. According to a Human Rights Watch report released on September 8, 2026, South Korean women face professional barriers at all ages, but they are compounded as the women age. As part of its study, Human Rights Watch interviewed 41 women, aged 28-87, from both the public and private sectors in South Korea between February and November 2025. They found that as women grow older, work prospects diminish and working conditions deteriorate. These factors affect their physical and mental health.
“South Korean women spend their entire working lives in a system stacked against them, which becomes harder as they get older,” said Bridget Sleap, senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch.
A separate survey, commissioned by South Korean labor and rights organization Workplace Gapjil 119 to study workplace gender discrimination and the effectiveness of existing remedies, revealed that women confront gender imbalance and discrimination at all levels. Global Research conducted the nationwide survey of 1,000 employees aged 19 and older between February 2 and 8, 2026.
Of the respondents, 60.7% indicated that there is a gender imbalance in the workplace. There was a marked difference in perceptions by gender, with 73.1 percent of women reporting discrimination in the workplace, compared with only 49.1 percent of men.
According to the results of the Workplace Gapjil 119 survey, 51.9% of women said that they had experienced a career gap due to childbirth and child-rearing, and 31.6% said they had experienced gender discrimination and prejudice in their performance evaluations.
“Systemic discrimination at work is causing South Korean women significant harm,” Sleap said. “The South Korean government needs to dismantle harmful gender and age stereotypes so that younger and older women alike will not be trapped in a system of ever-decreasing pay, increasing occupational segregation, and inadequate income in older age with little hope of improvement,” she further added.
Glossary
Deteriorate: To become worse.
Dismantle: To get rid of a system or organisation, usually over a period of time.
Gender discrimination: When someone is treated unequally or disadvantageously based on their gender.
Gender gap: A difference between the way men and women are treated in society
Imbalance: A situation in which two things should be equal or that are normally equal are not.
Inadequate: Not good enough or low in quantity.
Prejudice: An unfair or unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.
Rearing: To care for young animals or children until they are able to care for themselves.
Segregation: The policy of keeping one group of people apart from another and treating them differently, especially because of sex or religion.
Stacked: Someone is not likely to succeed, especially because the person is not being given a fair chance.
Stereotype: To have a set idea about what a particular type of person or thing is like, especially an idea that is wrong, or to use or encourage these ideas.
Systemic: Relating or involving a whole system.
