Nearly 4 in 5 (77.4 percent) female officials at central government ministries said there is gender discrimination in promotions, according to survey results released Monday.

Some 64.5 percent of male civil servants said, however, there is no gender discrimination in promotions, revealing a gap in perception between the genders.

Women picked the “male-oriented organizational culture” (29.8 percent) and “disadvantage for taking maternity leave or child care leave” (22.4 percent) as the key reasons of discrimination.

The Ministry of Personnel Management conducted the online survey of 15,515 officials at 45 central government ministries from Feb. 23 to 27 in a bid to come up with measures to improve personnel management for female civil servants. Nearly 7 in 10 respondents were men.

Some 64.9 percent of men and 40.9 percent of women said they disagree with the program to raise the proportion of women in senior government positions. 

In terms of work performance evaluation, 67.8 percent of female officials said sexism exists, while 64.5 percent of male officials said it does not exist.

Women selected “customary leniency in assessment for a specific gender” (29 percent) and “lack of work experience in key departments” (27.1 percent) as the main reasons of discrimination.

Some 55.8 percent of women said gender affects job assignments, while 55.6 percent of men said it does not.

Both male and female civil servants chose “housework and child care issues” as the biggest obstacle in getting assigned to key positions.

Women picked “managers’ tendency to avoid women” and men selected “lack of responsibility and drive” as the second-biggest barrier.

In response to all the questions on whether managers of a specific gender were better at certain things such as making work-related decisions, most of the respondents said gender was irrelevant.

The survey results also showed that those who have worked with a female supervisor have less gender bias, and the longer a person has had a female boss the more positive he or she was toward women.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)