South Korea,
officially the Republic of Korea is a country in East Asia, constituting the
southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North
Korea. The name Korea is derived from Goguryeo, which was one of the great
powers in East Asia during its time, ruling most of the Korean Peninsula,
Manchuria, parts of the Russian Far Eastand Inner Mongolia under Gwanggaeto the
Great.Its capital, Seoul, is a major global city and half of South Korea's over
51 million people live in the Seoul Capital Area, the fourth largest
metropolitan economy in the world(CIA World Fact Book, 2019).The June
Struggle led to the end of authoritarian rule in 1987 and the country is now
the most advanced democracy with the highest level of press freedom in Asia. It
has the 10th highest socialmobility in
the world, with 17% of children born to parents in the bottom half of
educational attainment ending up in the top quarter.
South Korea is a member of the OECD's
Development Assistance Committee, the G20 and the Paris Club. South Korea is a
highly developed country and the world's 12th-largest economy by nominal GDP.
Its citizens enjoy the world's fastest Internet connection speeds and the densest
high-speed railway network. It was named the second-best country in the world
to raise kids in the 2020 UN Child Flourishing Index, with the best chance at
survival, thriving and well-being due to good healthcare, education and
nutrition. The world's 5th largest exporter and 8th largest importer, South
Korea is a global leader in many technology and innovation driven fields (Human
Development Report, 2019).
Gender
inequality in South Korea refers to the unequal opportunities and treatment men
and women face in South Korea. Derived from deep-rooted patriarchal ideologies
and practices, gender inequality in South Korea is consistently ranked as one
of the highest in the world. While gender inequality remains especially
prevalent in South Korea's economy and politics, it has improved in healthcare
and education.
Due to the
various methods of calculating and measuring gender inequality, South Korea's
gender inequality rankings vary across different reports. While the 2017 UNDP
Gender Inequality Index ranks South Korea 10th out of 160 countries, the World
Economic Forum ranks South Korea 118th out of 144 countries in its 2017 Global
Gender Gap Report. In their 2013 study (Branisa et al.), explain that indices
like the Global Gender Gap Index tend to be "outcome-focused", which
means they focus on gender inequalities in agency and in well-being. Indices
like the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) focus on the origins of
gender inequalities, such as laws and norms. South Korea is one of three OECD
countries that did not receive a perfect SIGI score. While the SIGI did not
give South Korea an overall ranking, the country was reported to have very low
levels of discriminatory family code, low levels of restricted civil liberties,
and medium levels of restricted resources and assets (Human Development
Reports, 2018).
In 2010, 93%
of South Koreans surveyed believed women should have equal rights to men, and
among them, 71% believe more changes are needed before that goal is achieved. Gender
inequality" in South Korea has been perpetuated and deepened by historical
practices and events, such as military sexual slavery and Park Geun-Hye's
scandal. However, contemporary South Korea has made
great strides in attempting to reduce gender
inequality through legislation and policymaking
Throughout
modern history, South Korean women have been subjected to military sexual
slavery.During World War II, thousands of young Korean women were forced to
become "comfort women" for the Japanese Imperial Army. During the
Korean War, the United States enlisted more than one million South Korean women
into military prostitution. According to the Journal of Korean Studies authors
Han and Chu, military establishments have depended upon and justified the
systematic discrimination of women by promoting gendered notions of femininity
and masculinity, weakness and strength, conquered and conqueror. Han and Chu
believe that military sexual slavery has contributed to the patriarchal
ideologies that perpetuate gender inequality in South Korea (Han, Ju Hui Judy;
Chun, Jennifer Jihye, 2014).
Sexual
Equality Employment Act (1987)
Act on Equal
Employment and Reconciliation of Work and Family (1989)
Mother-Child
Welfare Act (1991)
Punishment
of Sexual Violence and Protection of the Victim Act (1993)
Women’s
Development Act (1995)
Prevention
of Domestic Violence and Protection of the Victim Act (1997)
In 2005, the
Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was established and the patrilineal
family register (hoju) was abolished. While gender equality in policymaking and
governance has improved over the last few decades, gender equality in labor
markets and the division of labor has remained stagnant (UN Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1998).
Although women gained the rights to vote
and run for election in 1948, women have historically been underrepresented in
South Korean politics. When Park Geun-Hye became South Korea's first female
president in 2012, many viewed her election as a victory for gender equality in
South Korea. Four years later, her scandal and impeachment nullified any progress
made by her election and left many convinced that women are not fit to lead
their country. The professional inequality in South Korea is atypically high
among developed countries. This type of inequality can be seen in statistics
concerning South Korea's wage gap, employment rates, occupational segregation, and
parental leave.
In their
2001 article, Monk-Turner and Turner report that "all else equal, men earn
from 33.6 percent to 46.9 percent more than women with comparable skills. In
2017, the OECD placed Korea in the last position of all OECD countries for
gender pay gap, a position that has not improved since the OECD first published
this ranking in 2000.The gender pay gap in Korea is 34.6%, while the OECD
average is 13.1%.The gap has
improved by 7% since 2000, though the rate of improvement has been slower than
in other OECD countries. The Korean gender pay gap has been called "the
worst... among the industrialized countries.
Korea also ranked the lowest on the
glass-ceiling index published by The Economist in 2014.The glass-ceiling index
was determined by the country's performance on nine indicators such as wage
gap, labor force participation, representation in senior jobs, paid maternity
leave, etc. Women tend to occupy low-paying, non-regular jobs and are less
likely to be promoted to higher managerial positions in the workplace; however,
employment opportunities for women in South Korea have steadily
increased in the past few decades. Before the
Korean War, the employment rate of women was less than 30%. In their 2018
Economic Survey for Korea, the OECD recorded the female employment rate to be
around 56.1%, which is below the average (59.3%) for all OECD countries. The
male employment rate is 75.9%, which is slightly higher than the OECD average
(74.7%). In addition to the societal and familial expectations of women to be
primary caregivers, the OECD report explains that "women tend to withdraw
from the labor force once they have children, in part due to shortages of high-quality
early childhood education and care institutions. During the 1970s and 1980s,
women left the workforce at a very "early stage in family formation. Currently,
they are leaving the workforce later, usually right before or during their
pregnancy. May notes that this trend could be due to women's growing financial
independence ( Ma, Li, 2013).
The Korean Ministry of Gender Equality & Family is
focusing on ways of ensuring people can fully benefit from the different
policies and systems we have in place to achieve work-life balance for both men
and women. One example of how they are doing this is with “Best Family Friendly
Management” certifications, which provide various incentives and government
certifications for companies that have family-friendly policies for both men
and women. It started with 14 companies back in 2008, and today they have 956
companies involved. And it’s not just for big companies, but also local
government bodies along with small and medium enterprises. Certified companies
are already doing a lot to make sure their policies are family-friendly. There
has been a shift in mentality, and women in Korea are now considered as
essential to the long-term development and success of companies. The successful
cases of female employment and work-life balance, which are tailored for each
company, are becoming the driving force for larger changes in society. National
laws can be a burden for many companies, due to their uniform application, but
these cases are easy to apply to all companies (How is South Korea closing the
gender gap, 2015).
References:
CIA World Fact Book, (2019). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Human Development Report ,(2019).2019 Human Development
Index Ranking. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index-ranking
Human Development Reports, 2018. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII
Han, Ju Hui Judy; Chun, Jennifer Jihye (2014).
"Introduction: Gender and Politics in Contemporary Korea". The
Journal of Korean Studies. 19 (2): 245–255
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, 1998. "Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women: Republic of Korea"
MA, Li (2013). "Employment and Motherhood Entry in
South Korea, 1978-2006". Population (English Edition, 2002-). 68 (3):
419–446.
How is South Korea closing the gender gap, 2015.World
Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/03/qa-how-is-south-korea-closing-the-gender-gap/
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