ROK's Park tries to make history

Republic of Korea presidential candidate Park Geun-hye heads into Wednesday's election under the weight of history. Not only is she the daughter of a former leader who ruled for 18 years, but she's trying to win power in a country still dominated by men.

No Korean woman is believed to have ruled since Queen Jinseong more than a millennium ago.

As president, Park would have to face the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and growing worries about jobs, a rapidly aging population, a plummeting birthrate and the role of big business.

But many would also expect action on a host of problems that beset women: Many are paid less than men doing the same work; many are trapped in low-paying jobs, despite first-class educations; many are struggling to raise families and pursue careers; many are discouraged by the tiny number of women who rise to the top of the society's most prestigious jobs.

"Unless you are a second-generation female family member of a chaebol (business conglomerate), there is almost no case of a woman being named a company's chief executive," said Sim Yeo-lynn, a 31-year-old female business owner, referring to the ROK's family controlled industrial groups. "If we have a female president, a female CEO will not seem strange."

ROK citizens are proud of their vibrant economy and democracy, and opportunities for women are improving. There are growing numbers of female diplomats, lawyers, doctors and college graduates. But women here also acknowledge entrenched sexism.

"Park's win as a woman would be a huge story," said Victor Cha, a former senior Asia adviser in the administration of former US president George W. Bush.

He said that the ROK "is unfortunately still one of those corporate societies where young and able women would much prefer to work in Singapore or Hong Kong" because of the chauvinism that still exists in the ROK. Forecasts call for a tight race on Wednesday between Park and her opponent Moon Jae-in.

The ROK has the widest men and women income gap among developed economies, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The ROK's average annual income jumped 2.5 times between 1992 and 2008, but the gender income gap hasn't narrowed much. In 2008, ROK women earned 39 percent less than ROK men, the largest gap among the 26 OECD member countries. The US gender income gap was 20 percent.

A female president would have to help both the large number of women who make far less than men doing the same work, and the so-called alpha girls, a smaller group who are as well-educated and well-paid as men, said Park Seon-young, chief women's rights researcher at the state-funded Korean Women's Development Institute in Seoul.

The "alpha girls" need policies that would help them raise children more easily while they continue to work. Everyone else needs policies aimed at making sure they make the same as men doing similar work. Park said statistics show women in the ROK are more likely to work in jobs where job security is weak - for example, daycare, small stores and companies with five or fewer workers.