Women accounted for 31.9 percent of newly hired staff in science and technology. That was up 3.8 percentage points from 2020, when the figure was 28.1 percent.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity for Women in Science and Technology (WISET) said this based on the "2024 survey on the use of women in science and technology," conducted on 5,138 research institutions nationwide in science and technology fields. The reference date for the survey was Dec. 31, 2024.

The share of women employees rose 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 23.7 percent, increasing for a fifth straight year. By institution type, the shares were 30.0 percent at science and engineering universities, 26.5 percent at public research institutes and 19.5 percent at private research institutes. For new hires, public research institutes were highest at 38.6 percent, and private research institutes increased by 7.3 percentage points over the past five years.

Indicators for leadership-level positions remained low. Women accounted for 13.1 percent of those holding official posts, and 13.3 percent of principal investigators, up only 0.3 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively, from a year earlier. The share of women leading large research projects worth 1 billion won or more was 9.2 percent.

The survey also examined the operation of work-life balance programmes. Institutions operating legally mandated programmes such as maternity and childcare leave accounted for 92.3 percent, while those operating voluntary programmes such as remote work and leave for infertility treatment stood at 57.0 percent. The share of institutions running voluntary programmes has risen 10.0 percentage points over the past five years.

Lee Jun-bae (이준배), director general for Future Talent Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "In an era of population decline, expanding women scientists' and engineers' careers is an essential task to safeguard the country's innovation capacity."