Foreign Ownership and Gender Inequality at Workplace: An Empirical Examination of the Case of Korea

This study explores how foreign ownership influences gender inequality at the workplace by examining the case of Korea. By analyzing Human Capital Corporate Panel dataset from Korea, this study found foreign ownership is likely to hire more women compared to local ownership. This study also revealed that foreign ownership tends to offer more regular positions to women when it is a public firm which is more sensitive to stakeholder pressures and exposed to diverse stakeholders than private firm. We hope that our study contributes to the existing literature on foreign investment and gender inequality at the workplace by demonstrating the relationship between foreign ownership and gender inequality at the workplace. Thus, we expect that this study stimulates future research on the role of foreign actors in improving social issues.