Members of SNU Women Professors’ Association

On August 19, SNU confirmed that the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will, for the first time in its 72-year history, hire its first female professors. The two scholars are expected to begin their official terms at SNU in the Spring 2019 semester.

Out of the 11 undergraduate and graduate departments within the College of Engineering, there are only 10 female faculty members, making up only 3.13% of the total teaching staff of the college. In the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the largest department of the college, all 61 professors are male.

Such a gender imbalance exists not only within the faculty, but also within the student body. In 2017, out of the 6430 students enrolled in the College of Engineering, only 992 (15%) were female. The low proportion of women in both the student body and teaching faculty leaves women severely disadvantaged in the college.

A representative for the College of Social Sciences said, “we need to establish policies for gender equality.” In fact, earlier this year, the Department of Economics also hired its first female Korean professor through a recruitment process that targeted female scholars.

According to an SNU spokesperson, efforts are being made to ensure that each department has at least one female professor. “If there are female professors, then female students will also be encouraged to become professors themselves.”

Written by Yu Young Jin, SNU English Editor coin1234@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Professor Travis Lamar Smith, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, tlsmith@snu.ac.kr