American International Journal of Social Science

The Male and Female Employment Effect of Compensation in Korea’s Manufacturing Industry: Gender Differences in the Workplace
Yinsog Rhee, Jae H. Song

Abstract
This paper reports a study on the demand for male and female workers in Korea’s manufacturing industry. The labor-output elasticities were estimated using annual time-series data (1972-1989) for durable and non-durable manufacturing. We found that the potential for substitution among male production, female production, and office workers is severely restricted. This is because of the rigid institutional factors in educationally and culturally based work rules. On the flip side, this suggests that the firm's ability to shift work tasks between genders or between job classifications is also restricted significantly. A finding like this, for example, can serve as a useful message from which developing countries can learn how to improve the usage of their female workers.

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