Ending discrimination among Korea's diplomats

Kim Hyeh-won, The Korea Herald, Asia News Network, Seoul

In general, I support a system of recruitment based on the result of written tests whether it be for businesses, for government organizations or for schools. Written tests are not a perfect means to measure one's ability and exactly for this reason, fewer and fewer business firms adopt this method for recruiting their employees. But in view of the rampant favoritism written tests are still the most reliable and fairest system of recruitment.

This system also enables women to avoid social discrimination in recruitment. The increasing number of co-eds at many prestigious institutions of higher education in this country is definitely an outcome from this system based on written tests. Thanks to it, we also see more and more women in government, in the judiciary and in news organizations. One of the latest phenomena is a drastic increase in the number of women who are entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Diplomats were once one of the most popular people among single women in Korea as their future husbands. This was when overseas travel remained a privilege limited to a very few. But because diplomats have to live in different countries, becoming a diplomat wasn't a very good choice for women pursuing a career and taking care of a family at the same time.

This perception seems to have undergone a change, however. Among the 35 people who passed the examination for recruitment in foreign service at the end of last month were 16 women, which accounted for 45.7 percent of the total. This impressive figure, had been expected. The number of women who pass the state-run test for recruiting diplomats, which remained minuscule even in the 1980s, has continuously increased over the last few years. Last year, 11 women joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade through open examination.

A senior diplomat said the increase may reflect changing attitudes about family and jobs. He said he asked the same question, "What would you do with your family when you have to serve in other countries," to several women who passed the written examination this year during an interview. One of them, who is married, said her husband had already agreed to her new job. Another applicant who was single made a similar answer, saying that her boyfriend had promised to help her perform her duty as a diplomat.

Lee In-ho, who was the first female ambassador of Korea, doesn't see a fundamental difference between men and women in performing their duty as a diplomat. Rather, fluency in foreign languages and cultural backgrounds, which are commonly the assets of women, are helpful. Moreover, still a rarity in the diplomatic corps in most countries, female diplomats tend to get the spotlight more easily.

Difficulties arise from the traditional family system and social practices of doing business but they can be overcome, said Lee, who is now president of the Korea Foundation.

In her case, the greatest difficulty came from the fact that she didn't have a "wife" to support her. Lee said the role of ambassadors customarily includes the role of their wives. The wives of diplomats not only help their husbands throw parties but also play a significant role in diplomatic society. Without such a wife, she had to depend on professional staff in organizing parties. But employing professional staff is a growing trend among male diplomats, too, because not all of them are married and because not all of them are accompanied by their wives during foreign service.

Another difficulty originated from the "unofficial" aspects of doing business. She was once blamed as a cause of strains in relations between Korea and Russia; she was a woman ambassador who did not drink vodka. Asked about the charge, Lee only said that when politicians and high-ranking officials of Korea came to the country she was serving, she put priority on arranging meetings between them and their counterparts there, rather than throwing parties for them.

To most of the Korean female diplomats, Lee's story may still sound too remote. Among the some 60 women diplomats, a majority has experience of less than 10 years. Lee, a renowned scholar of Russian history, was politically appointed as Korean ambassador to Finland in 1995 and served in Russia later. No woman has ever assumed an ambassadorship since then.

On top of the female diplomats of Korea at the moment is Kim Kyung-im, now director-general of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Having served in the ministry since 1978, she is most likely to become the first female ambassador of Korea among the career diplomats. Following her is Kang Kyung-hwa, a counselor-minister at the Korean mission to the United Nations. Kang joined the ministry in 1998 after serving as a professor and an assistant to the National Assembly speaker.

Taking into account the newcomers, however, the number of female diplomats is still around 80 among the 1,200 Korean diplomats. Even if women fill up 50 percent of the new diplomatic posts every year from now on, it will take quite a while for the number of female diplomats to reach the level of the so-called "critical mass" in John Naisbitt's term, the point at which a trend becomes a "megatrend." But certainly, things will change over time.