In October each year, the World Economic Forum makes public its Global Gender Gap Report, a report on its survey of gender equality in 135 countries. In the 2012 report, Iceland topped the overall rankings for the fourth consecutive year. It was followed by Finland and Norway.

What was the ranking for Korea, a country which has a separate Cabinet member for the promotion of gender equality ― the minister of gender equality and family ― and elected a woman to the presidency last week? It was abysmally low.

Korea ranked 108th in the survey, one notch lower than last year. The ranking was surely a shame for the 11th-largest economy in the world.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family also announces the levels of gender equality in four categories in 16 metropolises and provinces each year. According to the 2012 report, made public earlier this month, the overall gender equality index stood at 49.5 on the 0-to-100 scale, with 100 indicating no presence of a gender gap.

The category that had the lowest gender-equality index, 14.7, was the “representation” of men and women in the decision-making processes in the public sector. That was understandable, given that no women occupied the position of metropolitan mayor or provincial governor.

The woeful gender gap was confirmed in another report ― one made public by the Asia Society in April. Among the findings by the nonprofit organization based in New York was a yawning pay gap. The pay for women was equal to 51 percent of that for men, the lowest in Asia. The corporate executive posts taken by women in Korea accounted for a mere 1.9 percent of the total, the second lowest in Asia after Japan with 0.9 percent.

During the run-up to the Dec. 19 presidential election, the ruling Saenuri Party appealed to members of women’s organizations to help make its nominee, Park Geun-hye, the first woman present in the nation. It claimed she was better positioned to promote gender equality than her male rival from the main opposition party.

One woman co-chair of the party’s election committee said, in a meeting with representatives of women’s groups, that the election of a woman as president should be a starting point for a “revolution” in gender equality.

Still, few would say Park had overwhelming support from women’s groups. On the contrary, she failed to elicit support from one of the largest women’s organizations in the nation, Korean Women’s Association United, not to mention diehard leftist feminist groups. The association’s pre-election remarks on Park were caustic.

It said in a statement: “What remarks did you make and what action did you take when women were forced out of work for no good reason, when the laws on family was being revised, when laws on sexual violence, violence in family were being written, when women were demanding maternity and child-care leave?”

Korean Women’s Association United denounced Park for making no efforts to advance the interests of women, saying she had submitted not a single bill to that effect.

Park overcame the boycott of the association and other women’s groups and succeeded in electing herself to the presidency. But this does not mean that she can afford to ignore the demand for gender equality. Instead, she needs to strive to reduce the gender gap in pay, recruitment and political representation.

Discrimination against women cannot be condoned not just from the perspective of human rights but also for a practical reason. That means wasting much of the national resources that have been channeled into the education of women at a time when a higher percentage of high-school girls are admitted to colleges and universities than that of high-school boys.

Reducing the gender gap and, by doing so, encouraging women to engage in economic activities will be a policy Park needs to pursue actively. By pushing for equal pay and equal job opportunities, she can help solve the long-term problem of labor shortage ― a serious problem for a nation saddled with a population that is graying at a fast pace and a woefully low birthrate that shows no sign of coming near the replacement level.

A good opportunity to demonstrate her commitment to the cause of gender equality will come when she announces her Cabinet lineup. She is urged to nominate as many women as possible for the ministerial posts.