Two years ago, the government established a task force, composed of major conglomerates and civic groups, on narrowing the nation’s gender gap and increasing women’s participation in the workforce.

Despite the effort, South Korea still has an enormous gender gap, with the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2015 placing Korea 115th out of 146 nations in gender equality.

According to the report from the Swiss-based WEF, female economic participation and opportunities stood at 56 percent of that for men in South Korea. The forum claimed that Korea needs to focus on narrowing the gap in this area.

If the country maintains the economic participation rates of men and women at similar levels for 20 years or longer, it will be able to increase per capita GDP by 0.5 percentage point or more, advised the forum.

Korean female workers’ wages stay at 55 percent of the wages of men doing similar work.

The core reason for Korean women’s lower pay is seemingly that a majority of them have low-paid irregular jobs in the service and retail sectors. Only 4 in 10 female wage earners are regular employees, according to Statistics Korea.

What should be further noted is that this unstable and disadvantageous employment status for women is closely related to the difficulty of juggling work and family responsibilities. In Korea, which is not yet completely free of its traditional male-dominated culture, women are supposed to, or made to, shoulder a heavier burden in child care and housekeeping.

Statistics Korea data showed that women who quit their jobs due to marriage, pregnancy or childbirth take up more than 20 percent of all housewives, with a steady increase in recent years. It is virtually impossible for women to return to their workplaces at the same position after a long career hiatus.

They are likely to land low-paid jobs on a temporary or irregular basis. This phenomenon is reflected in the fact that the gender wage gap is highest in the 30-55 age group.

A two-pronged approach is required in the coming years to reduce the income inequality between men and women.

Efforts should be enhanced to enable female employees to continue to remain at work. In addition to support from the government, companies are required to improve their working conditions to be more family-friendly. Husbands should try to become better and more equal partners of their working spouses.

It will also be helpful to create more decent jobs with flexible working hours, which could be taken up more easily by highly skilled and well-educated women.

The effective reduction of the wage gap between male and female workers will be a key barometer of whether Korean society has reached substantive gender equality.