46% of Co-Ed High Schools Have Female Class Presidents

Lim’s persuasive performance hit the mark. She defeated a male candidate by five votes to become the 21st student council president of Samsung High School, despite the fact that the boy had an older brother who was a senior at the same school and therefore received the full support of the school’s seniors.

40% of Class Presidents Are Girls-

The position of class president or student council president had been considered a male-dominated role until now, but the number of girls claiming these titles is greatly increasing. According to the results of an exclusive study that this newspaper conducted on co-ed high schools with more than ten gender-mixed classes in the Seoul area, 112 classes out of 242 classes (46.3%) had a female class president.

At Gwangyang High School in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 9 out of 14 (64.7%) classes had a female class president, and Shinmok High School in Yangcheon-gu had 26 classes among 44 classes (59.1%), which were led by female class presidents. The results of a sample survey of 25 co-ed middle schools in the Seoul area also showed that 324 classes, 40.2% of the 806 classes, had a female class president.

Girls have been emerging as leaders at school starting from 2000.

Kim Hyang-seok, a teacher at Gwangyang High School, said, “Even up to five years ago, with the exception of one or two classes, all the classes had male class presidents, but the number of female class presidents has been increasing every year.” He added, “If this continues, soon, more than half of all class presidents will be female.”

“Powergirls” Have Strengthened Their Leadership-

These “powergirls” also have more noticeable leadership traits than the average male students. From April 9-13, this newspaper, together with the Korea Leadership Center (president: Kim Gyeong-seop) conducted a survey on high school students in the Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi areas. It surveyed 132 girls who were leaders with the title of student council president or class president, and 158 average boys and 168 average girls who were students without such titles. The result showed that the 68.9% of the female leaders replied that, “I lead the decision making of a group,” while the percentage of average male students who answered likewise was 43%. The response rate of female leaders was twice as high as that of the average female student (32.7%).

“Powergirls” Likely To Bring Social Reform-

Experts believe that the percentage of female class presidents in co-ed classes surpassing 40% is very significant. In March, the Samsung Economic Research Institute released a report titled, “The Rise Of Female Leaders and Their Prospects,” which according to the four development phases of women leaders, diagnosed that Korean society is currently in-between the second stage of a ‘token’ phase and a ‘substance’ phase, in which females begin to claim real influence.