[THE INVESTOR] The number of female executives at Korea’s top 30 conglomerates came to 3.1 percent of the total last year, a market tracker said on May 16.

Among 8,835 executives of 268 affiliates belonging to the business groups, known as chaebol here, that submitted business reports last year, only 274 were female, according to CEO Score.

Yet, it was the first time for the tally to surpass the 3 percent mark, it said. The previous year’s comparable figure stood at 2.5 percent.

Seven out of 10 conglomerates still had no female workers at all at C-suite job positions.

Retailers were at the forefront of striving to bring gender equality to the executive level, with Hyundai Department Store having the highest proportion of female executives at 9.5 percent among the business groups.

Shinsegae came in second with 7.9 percent, followed by the food and entertainment conglomerate CJ with 7.5 percent, according to CEO Score.

Samsung also had a comparatively high proportion of female executives with 5.1 percent, with numbers for retail giant Lotte standing at 3.6 percent, it said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)