고학력 전문직여성의 지위와 직업생활 : 박사학위 소지자를 중심으로

Work and Life of Academic Women in Korea

Many would say that Korean women are beginning to achieve a place of significance within higher education and the professional job market, which had been traditionally the male terrain. Many feminists dispute, however, that any progress which has been made is superficial and inconsequential. It is now widely acknowledged that women have been victims of individual and institutional discriminatory attitudes and practices based on their sex. The issue of sexism in general, and of sexism within the labor market in particular, has been the focus of considerable attention. In Korea, women with higher education have shown a lower rate of employment than others, and they have represented only a small proportion of higher professional group. A recent survey reported that women with higher education show their increasing aspirations of the employment and the career development. Therefore, the present study has examined the status of women in the higher education and the professional job market. For this purpose, the study has illuminated the situation of women in academic life, focusing on their 1) employmet status, 2) academic achievement, 3) attitudes toward the sexist discrimination, and 4) family life. The data were obtained by a survey using mailed questionnaires from 397 academic women with the doctorate degree. Main discussions of the study can be summarized as follows: First, although there are still fewer female graduate than there are male, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of women receiving advanced degrees. Women accounted for 13% of all doctoral recipients in 1989, comparing with 2.3% in 1970. Second, women have been more heavily represented in some fields(e.g. home economics, nursing science, art and literature) than others. Yet our data have shown that there was a trend towards increasing participation in such fields as social acience and engineering, in which women were virtually invisible. Third, the empirical findings have presented evidence that since over the recent years the academic job market has been more competative than before, and moreover this situation has been unfavorable to women. Feminist studies on professional women have argued that despite evidence of stronger records of professional achievement and ability, women were more likely than men to be unemployed or hold part time, had lower salaries, and hold lower ranks. The results of our study supported these arguments. Respondents who hold part-time position and received their degrees after 1980, have expressed that they were eager to find full-time position, and complained severe difficulties in finding a job. Fourth, the previous literature have claimed that women were more likely than men to be seen less serious and dedicated, and had their work evaluated less positively than it deserves. However, our findings disconfirmed these arguments. Korean academic women have give a high marks on their own academic achievements, and also shown a confidence in their prefessional career. Fifth, it should not be forgotten that despite the efforts women have made and the battles they have fought and won, professional women must still overcome the individual and institutional sexism that is woven into the fabric of occupational life. For the average professional women, sexism can create innumerable subtle and blatant barriers to their progress. Individual women are often the victims of anti-female attitudes and behavior on the part of others. Our data have shown that academic women frequently faced the sexist discrimination when they entered the profession or got promoted. They also felt some sense of isolation or segregation in professional affairs. Sixth, academic women who were married, seemed to manage their dual role rather successfully. Serious role conflict, from the performance of their professional and familial roles, has not been shown in the present study. Academic women have felt that their husbands and ch