Female Executives at South Korea’s Top 100 Firms Hit Record 491

For the first time, female executives at South Korea's top 100 companies have surpassed 491, marking a new record. However, women still represent only 6.6% of all executive positions, a figure that has hovered around the 6% mark for four consecutive years. This data comes from the "2026 Survey on Female Executives at South Korea’s Top 100 Companies," released by the Korea CXO Research Institute on November 9.

The survey, which covered the 100 largest listed companies based on revenue, found that the number of female executives increased by 3.2% from last year, rising from 476 to 491. This represents a significant 19 companies with no female executives, predominantly in traditional heavy industries like shipbuilding, steel, and aerospace.

Despite the numerical gains, the proportion of female executives relative to all executives has remained stagnant. Samsung Electronics leads with 80 female executives, followed by Naver with 28, Hyundai Motor with 22, and CJ CheilJedang with 21. Among these, CJ CheilJedang stands out with the highest proportion of women in its executive ranks at 20.8%, the only company surpassing 20%.

The pace of growth has slowed, with annual increases in female executives being in the teens for the past two years, compared to larger gains in earlier years. Experts suggest that companies must address the challenges of securing talent as the working-age population declines and strengthen the pipeline of potential female executive candidates through systematic development of middle managers.