Together, Korea’s Women and Economy Can Soar
齐心协力，韩国女性和经济可以比翼齐飞
– Keynote Speech to Korean Network of Women in Finance
——在韩国金融界女性网的主旨演讲
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
国际货币基金组织总裁 克里斯蒂娜·拉加德
September 5, 2017
2017年9月6日
Prime Minister, Ministers, distinguished guests – Anyoung haseyo. It is my honor to address the International Conference on Women’s Empowerment in Financial Services.
总理先生，部长们，各位嘉宾，Anyoung haseyo。能够在金融服务的女性赋权国际大会上讲话，我深感荣幸。
Thank you – Sang-Kyung Kim and the Korean Network of Women in Finance – for your warm welcome. Your goal to promote gender diversity in the financial sector is critical.
我感谢Sang-Kyung Kim 和韩国金融界女性网的热烈欢迎。你们在金融业促进性别多样化的目标至关重要。
Indeed, empowering women is not just the right moral choice; it is also the right macroeconomic choice. That is why many of us care – including the IMF. Helping women participate in the economy boosts growth, diversifies economies, reduces income inequality, and mitigates demographic change.
实际上，赋予女性权能不仅是道义上的正确选择，也是宏观经济上的正确选择。正因如此，才有包括基金组织在内的许多人关心这项工作。通过帮助女性参与经济，将促进经济增长，提高经济多样性，减少收入不平等和减缓人口变化。
These factors are relevant across the globe – but especially here in Korea.
这些问题在全球范围内都很重要，但在韩国尤其如此。
Think, in particular, about growth. For the last five years, the working-age population increased by 200,000 every year, boosting growth by 0.7 percentage points. Over the next five years, the workforce will shrink by 100,000 a year, subtracting 0.2 percentage points from growth. Enabling more women to work can dramatically alleviate the adverse effects of demographic change.
特别是，让我们想一想增长的问题。过去五年，工作年龄人口每年增加20万，使增长率提高0.7个百分点。今后五年，工作人口将每年减少10万，使增长率降低0.2个百分点。如果让更多女性参加工作，就可以大大缓解人口变化的不利影响。
There has never been a more critical time for Korea to invest in women. This challenge is the focus of my remarks.
对于韩国而言，现在对女性进行投资，比以往任何时候都更为关键。我的讲话将重点关注这项挑战：
First, despite progress, further actions are needed – by government and society – to help women participate in the economy;
首先，尽管已经取得了进展，但政府和社会都仍需采取更多行动，帮助女性参与经济;
Second, from the corporate perspective, more ambitious steps are required to harness the substantial dividends from having more women in senior positions.
第二，从企业角度来看，需要采取更加大胆的措施，让更多女性升任高级职位，以从中获取重大好处;
1. Empowering Women in Korea’s Economy
1、韩国经济中的女性赋权
Let me start with Korea’s progress. The proportion of women in the workforce – the female labor force participation rate – has increased from 46 percent in 1980 to 58 percent in 2016. Between 1990 and 2010, the share of women in regular jobs rose from 20 to 40 percent.
我首先谈一下韩国取得的进展。女性在工作人口中的比重，即女性的劳动力参与率，已从1980年的46%上升到了2016年的58%。1990年至2010年期间，女性在正规就业人数中的比重从20%增加到40%。
On the global stage, many Korean women are shining – figure-skaters; musicians; golfers like Park Sung-hyun, recent champion of the U.S. Women’s Open.
全球舞台上有着很多光彩耀人的韩国女性，包括花样滑冰选手、音乐家和最近赢得美国女子公开赛冠军的朴成炫这样的高尔夫球员。
Yet, Korea still has one of the lowest rates of female labor force participation in the OECD – 20 percentage points below the best performers. Women are paid about 37 percent less than men. Females take up just 2 percent of senior management positions – compared to the OECD average of 20 percent.
然而，韩国女性的劳动力参与率仍然属于经合组织国家中最低之列，比表现最好的国家低20个百分点。女性的薪酬比男性低大约37%。女性在高管职位中的比率仅为2%，相比之下，经合组织的平均水平是20%。
With many women leaving the workforce in their 30s to have families, they typically miss a decade or more of prime working life. Re-entering the workforce is a challenge. For those who do, opportunities can be limited. Many take non-regular jobs, or never reach the next rung on the career ladder.
很多女性在三十几岁时便不再工作，她们成立家庭，因此错过了10年甚至更长的最好的工作时间。重新参与工作并不容易。而对那些再次寻求工作的女性来说，机会可能有限。很多人是非正规就业，或职位永远升不上去。
I. Policies
一、政策
The good news is that steps are being taken to remove these barriers. As the Korean proverb goes: “Beginning is half the task.”
好消息是，当局正在采取措施消除这些障碍。正如韩国谚语说的那样，“好的开头是成功的一半”。
Korea has had legally-compulsory gender budgeting for over a decade. It is one of only a few countries that collect and analyze gender-disaggregated data to assess the effectiveness of its approach.
十几年来，韩国一直在法律上强制实施性别预算。韩国是少数几个收集和分析按性别分列的数据、以评估性别预算效果的国家之一。
Building on this, parental leave provisions have been expanded, and investments made in childcare. Steps have been taken to help mothers return to work after an absence, alongside efforts to make workplaces more family-friendly. These priorities have been part of the IMF’s discussions with the government for several years.
韩国在此基础上扩大了育婴假的范围，增加了儿童保育方面的投资。韩国也采取了措施，帮助母亲们在离职一段时间后重返工作，同时还努力使工作场所对家庭更加友好。过去几年，基金组织已与韩国政府就上述优先事项等问题开展了讨论。
Most recently, President Moon has honored his pledge for women to take up 30 percent of his Cabinet. The government is planning other crucial steps. These include making 175 employment centers available to women seeking work, and letting mothers work reduced hours for an extended period.
最近，文在寅总统履行了承诺，使女性在他内阁中占到了30%的席位。政府正在规划其他重要措施，包括为求职女性提供175个就业中心，以及让母亲能够在更长时间缩短工时。
Further efforts are needed, including to strengthen childcare, flexible working, and job search and training support. These can pay big dividends.
还需要开展更多工作，这包括完善儿童保育、灵活工作时间以及求职培训援助。这些努力都将带来显著成效。
An IMF study looked at the potential impact of reforming secondary earner taxation, increasing childcare benefits, and boosting tax incentives for part-time work. It estimated that these reforms could help increase female labor force participation by 8 percentage points over the medium term – reducing the gap between male and female participation by one-third.
基金组织的一项研究分析了第二收入者征税改革、增加育儿福利和加强非全时工作税收激励措施的潜在影响。这项研究估计，这些改革可帮助在中期内使女性劳动力参与率提高 8个百分点，从而把男女参与率之间的差距缩小三分之一。
I also know the importance of family-friendly working practices from my own personal experience.
另外，我也有亲身经历，知道支持家庭的工作做法的重要性。
I was about to be made partner international law firm Baker McKenzie when I became a new mother. To care for my son, I changed my working hours, and took Wednesday afternoons off. This did not resonate well with some male partners – but I was determined to do it. Still, it delayed my conversion to partner by a year.
在即将成为国际律师事务所Baker McKenzie的合伙人时，我初为人母。为了照顾儿子，我改变了工作时间，每个星期三下午都不工作。我的男同事们对此并不欢迎，但我仍决心这样做。然而，我因此多等了一年才成为合伙人。
II. Culture
二、文化
Indeed, as much as can be achieved through policies, it is critical to address social norms that inhibit women.
此外，我们还必须着手改变约束女性的社会规范，其作用可能不亚于政策的作用。
There are even areas where progress can be made not only without undermining cultural identities – but by affirming them. Consider your national flag. The Yin-Yang circle in the middle of Taegukgi symbolizes that achieving harmony requires both women and men to play their part.
在一些领域，要取得进展不仅不能削弱文化认同，反而应该是肯定文化认同。贵国的国旗就是一个例子。太极旗的中央是阴阳合一，象征为了实现和谐，女性和男性需要同时发挥作用。
Think, first, of the mothers. Amy Chua’s book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, prompted some heated debate, but an underlying observation resonates. That is the amount of time spent by mothers to educate their children at home, often at the expense of paid employment. Improving public education can support changing social attitudes to help more women combine family and work.
首先让我们想想母亲们。蔡美儿所著的《虎妈战歌》一书引发了一些激烈讨论，但其中一个基本的观察引起了人们的共鸣，这就是母亲们放弃了有偿劳动，把大量时间用于在家中教育子女。通过改善公共教育，可有助于改变社会态度，帮助更多女性把家庭和事业结合起来。
Women’s attitudes themselves are shifting. The percentage of Korean women wanting to keep their jobs regardless of marriage and childbirth increased from 17 percent in 1988 to 56 percent by 2009.
女性自身的态度正在变化。结婚生育后仍希望继续工作的韩国女性，其比重从1988年的17%增加到了2009年的56%。
Moreover, one concern that has been raised about having more women in the workforce is that it could reduce fertility – which would hinder efforts to address demographic change.
此外，更多女性参与工作所引起的一个担心是，这会降低生育率，从而妨碍应对人口变化的努力。
Such concerns are misplaced. Nordic countries have shown that high female labor force participation and fertility can go hand-in-hand if aided by supportive policies.
这样的担心是多余的。北欧国家显示，如果辅以支持性政策，女性的高劳动力参与率和高生育率可以并存。
Another country facing demographic change – Japan – has shown that the likelihood of having a second child increases if men are more active in the household.
日本也是一个面临人口变化的国家，该国显示，如果男子在家务中发挥更积极的作用，生第二胎的可能性将增加。
This brings me to the role of fathers. Despite progress, take-up of paternity leave only recently exceeded 5 percent. Many fathers do not take it because they fear ramifications at work.
在这里，我要谈谈父亲们的作用。尽管有所进展，但休陪产假的父亲人数只是在最近才超过5%。很多父亲之所以不休陪产假，是因为担心对工作产生不良影响。
Consider the experience of this 34-year old father:
以下这个34岁的父亲的经历是一个例子：
“If I hadn’t taken leave”, he said, “I would have been up for promotion. But I was bypassed. I expect to be at a disadvantage in pay and promotion.”
他说：“如果我没有休陪产假，本来能够获得晋升。但别人得到了这个机会。我想自己在加薪升职中会处于较为不利的地位。”
If men are to play a more active role in family life, corporate culture needs to change. It also needs to change for the sake of women, which brings me to my second point – how to empower women to lead in the corporate sector.
要使男子在家庭生活中发挥更为积极的作用，就需要改变企业文化。而为了女性，也需要这么做。这是我接下来谈的第二点，如何通过赋予女性权能，让她们成为商界领袖。
