Journal of Afective Disorders 306 (2022) 269–275 Available online 25 March 2022 0165-0327/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Gender discrimination in workplace and depressive symptoms in female employees in South Korea Suyeon Kim a , Eunsoo Won b, c , Hyun-Ghang Jeong d , Moon-Soo Lee d , Young-Hoon Ko e , Jong-Woo Paik f , Changsu Han d , Byung-Joo Ham g , Eunsoo Choi a, * , Kyu-Man Han g, ** a School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea b Departments of Psychiatry, CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University School of Medicine, Seongnam, Republic of Korea c Department of Psychiatry, Chaum, Seoul, Republic of Korea d Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Guro Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea e Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Ansan, Republic of Korea f Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea g Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Workplace gender discrimination Depression Moderator Workers Women Employees ABSTRACT Background: Workplace gender discrimination (WGD) may have long-term negative impacts on female workers' mental health. We aimed to investigate the association between WGD and the prevalence of depressive symptoms using a nationally representative sample of female employees in South Korea. Methods: Data of 3190 adult female employees were obtained from the 2018 nationwide Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families. Women's perception of WGD was assessed using a 6-item questionnaire. Re- spondents were classifed into high, medium, and low levels of WGD according to the 25th and 75th percentile scores. A score of ≥10 on the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies for Depression Scale was defned as having signifcant depressive symptoms. Results: A high level of WGD was signifcantly associated with a higher odds ratio (OR) for depressive symptoms compared to the low level (OR = 1.87, 95% confdence interval = 1.45–2.41). In the subgroup analyses, high WGD levels were associated with the highest OR for depressive symptoms in the following subgroups: younger age (19–39 years), those with a college degree, non-standard workers, pink collar workers, those with a work- place size of 10–29 employees, those with high levels of job autonomy, or low levels of emotional labor. Limitations: Causal interpretation is limited owing to the study's cross-sectional design. Conclusions: A high level of perceived WGD was associated with depressive symptoms among female employees. Certain groups of female employees may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of WGD on depression. 1. Introduction Workplace gender discrimination (WGD) is ubiquitous worldwide phenomenon, particularly prevalent in cultural contexts of strong pa- triarchal traditions, such as East Asia (Littlejohn, 2017). Although women in East Asian countries are more likely to participate in work outside the home than in the past due to ongoing economic development (Verick, 2014), WGD against women still prevails. South Korea, one of the wealthiest East Asian nations, is no exception (Patterson and Walcutt, 2013). Considering the uncontrollable and unpredictable na- ture of WGD (Pascoe and Smart Richman, 2009), it is a signifcant psychosocial stressor (Krieger et al., 2006) that may have long-term adverse impacts on female workers' mental health (Williams and Mohammed, 2009). WGD appears in various forms. For instance, in hiring situations, women are evaluated worse than men with the same qualifcations (Kübler et al., 2018). Likewise, in promotion decisions, women are more likely to be evaluated negatively than men, and are thus expected to * Correspondence to: E. Choi, School of Psychology, Korea University, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea. ** Correspondence to: K.-M. Han, Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, 73, Goryeodae-ro, Seongbuk- gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea. E-mail addresses: taysoo@korea.ac.kr (E. Choi), han272@korea.ac.kr (K.-M. Han). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Affective Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.050 Received 12 January 2022; Received in revised form 16 March 2022; Accepted 18 March 2022