The stage of diplomatic-woman : The new change in the Ministry of Foreign Affair

The commitee of assessment was opened in the conference room of the Ministry of Foreign Affair in last July. One of a team was a man and the other was a woman in the briefing.
That is, a man is working as a director of department and woman is in charge of administration as a team as it is increased that woman passed an examination of diplomat since 2000.


In case of UN which is one of the representative department that woman is outnumbered, it has 11 women except 2 people among 15 employee. Woman's ratio of successful applicants in the examination of diplomat which was 20% in 2000 was continously rising and for the first time, it was over 50% in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, woman was 75% and this year, it is 48.8% of woman but the reason of reducing is because of getting rid of the limitation of age to the exam.

The Ministry of Foreign Affair also includes a diplomatic-woman to work of a upcountry and night duty from this year. Thirty eight people among eighty nine people of diplomatic women is on duty in the hinterlands like Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe etc.

The atmosphere of the government building of Ministry of Foreign Affair was also changed by diplomatic-woman's increase. It is now a few that many men who wears a similar color suit.
Mr. Myung Ryeol Lee who is the director of Ministry of Foreign Affair, after coming back to Korea, said he was surprised it they didn't eat Samkypsal(삼겹살) and Soju(소주) in dinner after working and instead, they ate the spaghetti and go to see a movie together.
He also said " it is also a changed element that the communication seem to become frequent and brisk in the government office as diplomatic-woman express more freely their opinion than diplomatic woman."

The status of a outnumbered woman in the Ministry of Foreign Affair is not ended in the Ministry of Foreign Affair. Many of woman passed in the exam of JPO(Junior professional officer, 초급국제기구전문가) which MFA recruit 5 people evey year to support the advance to an international organization. One of diplomat said that a competitive woman is too much to select a man even if they want to recruit a man.

Generally speaking, a diplomatic woman seem to be increased contantly even in the near future because woman have a growing interest in the field of foreign language and international relations.