Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The lack of gender diversity in science and technology has been an ongoing issue across countries. Many countries have adopted various policies and programs to enhance the proportion of women in science and technology industry to better utilize female talents and diversify the field of science and technology where was historically dominated by men. The Korean government has implemented the Affirmative Action policy in 2001. The policy requires government-funded research institutions increasing employment of women to 30 percent of the workforces and promoting women to 10 to 20 percent of managerial positions.

The present study seeks to examine the effect of the Affirmative Action policy in Korean government on the employment and career advancement of women in science and technology. To do so, we collected the panel data (1998—2017) of female employment (proportions of women in new employment and in managerial positions, salary) in the research institutions subject to the policy mandates. We develop interrupted time series design to find whether the Affirmative Action policy has made meaningful changes in utilization of female workforces. We sampled 20 out of 103 institutions as the experimental group, while the control group is made up of comparable research institutions not subject to the AA policy. Small group interviews will also be conducted to analyze what challenges women may confront in developing their career and to explore strategies for women’s successful career advancement in the field.