Industry ministry honors five women engineers, plans first workforce survey

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it awarded citations to five women engineers and five organizations at a Seoul conference meant to highlight their role in industrial technology, and announced that South Korea will conduct its first survey of women engineers in 2027.

The ministry and the Korean Women Engineers and Technologists Association (WITECK) held the 2026 Women in Engineering Conference at the El Tower in Yangjae, southern Seoul, with about 240 people attending, including lawmakers Lee Eon-ju and Choi Soo-jin of the National Assembly's industry committee. The event followed the first Engineers' Day on Oct. 30 and carried the slogan "Women engineers' growth raises the future of industry."

The five individual awardees were Kim Sang-hee, a team leader at SK Siltron; Hwang Kyung-min, chief executive of V-Pix Medical; Roh Yu-jeong, a professor at Pusan National University; Na Jeong-jo, a professor at Duksung Women's University; and Roh Yun-sook, a professor at Inha University. The five organizations recognized for recruiting women engineers and supporting their advancement were Korea South-East Power, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Viva Republica, HanmiGlobal Architecture Office and Common Computer.

At an industrial technology forum that followed, Lim Woo-hyung, co-head of research at LG AI Research, spoke on the industrial ecosystem's evolution through artificial intelligence, and Roh Mi-jeong, an executive at Samsung Electronics' foundry division, addressed the semiconductor industry in the AI era. A publication ceremony for "21 Women Engineers Who Changed the World," issued by the association, was also held, followed by a talk session on improving working conditions for engineers.

"The competitiveness of advanced industries depends on how many excellent technical talents we secure and nurture, and women engineers with diversity and expertise are an important source of competitiveness for our industry," the ministry said. "We will strengthen the legal and institutional foundation so that women engineers can fully demonstrate their capabilities without career breaks and be recognized fairly for their contributions."

The planned survey is intended to map how many women work in industrial research and development, how their careers progress and what drives them out of the workforce, with the findings to feed into policies on preventing career breaks and improving treatment. Legislation to provide a legal basis for the survey, sponsored by National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik, is under discussion in the legislature, and funding has been included in the government's 2027 budget proposal.