When U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited South Korea’s national bank in July, one of the top items on her agenda was a town hall event with the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) female employees, reportedly prepared at her request.

Why Yellen — the only woman in her economics Ph.D. class at Yale — chose to meet separately with Korean women in public service should be obvious: BOK Governor Rhee Chang-yong is a man, as were all 26 of his predecessors. Among 976 cabinet-level peers appointed across the ROK’s 74-year history, only 59 (6.36%) were women.