Do Management Level and Perceived Organizational Support of Maternity Affect Views on Gender Parity and Work Satisfaction? : A Study based on Korean SET Talent Survey with Policy Recommendations

This study investigates the specific views of women in SET (science, engineering and technology) and seeks to identify how SET women in various career levels (entry, manager, and executive) and men may differ regarding issues of gender parity in recruitment, assessment, promotion, and compensation. Given known challenges in female talent retention we seek to gain deeper insight into how women are affected by children and how the organizational policies for maternity protection may impact their views on gender parity and job satisfaction. To test our hypotheses, we utilized data from a project and survey we conducted in collaboration with WISET and analyzed data from 301 employees. Organizations were categorized into private enterprises, research institutes and universities with questions framed in the context of human resource policies and human resource development programs in Korea. Empirical findings included that for SET female talent, their views of gender discrimination were more aligned with their gender than their level. Second, while women with and without children reported similar views along twelve metrics, women with children were more satisfied with their current jobs. Third, we found mostly strong correlations between CEO intention for maternity protection and all tested metrics for SET women with or without children. This study is intended to advance a workplace operation model with a desired outcome to increase recruitment and retention of WISET and in turn contribute to improved organizational culture, talent management and gender parity. We seek to contribute to insight that leads to organizational cultures that embrace egalitarian values and empower women which, in turn, will lead to a more balanced, family-friendly society.