User:Eunjin Jung/Women in South Korea

Legal rights

The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) states that discrimination against women is about equality of rights and human dignity. The political and social principles of the state violate the principle of respect for sex and are equal to that of men. Pointing out that it is an obstacle to participation in the economic, cultural life of the country. For the sake of development and human welfare and peace, women are equal to men in all areas. It is necessary to participate as much as possible and achieve full equality between men and women. The traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and home to be successful. Also, the issue of discrimination against women in society as a whole. In all fields, such as politics, economy, society, culture, etc., under the basic recognition that it is necessary to take responsibility for it. To ensure that all appropriate measures are taken by the Parties to eliminate discrimination against women.

"The Framework Act on Women's Development," which was enacted in 1995 and has been used as a legal basis for Korean women's policy, was renamed "The Framework Act on Gender Equality." From the birth of the Framework Act on Gender Equality in May 2014 to the enforcement on July 1, 2015, the various discourse was produced to view the revision as a paradigm shift in Korean women's policy. However, the revision has shaken the understanding of terms such as “gender” and “women,” “gender equality” or “gender-sensitive perspectives,” and caused a gap between political and academic over terminology. In this situation, we must consider how Korean women's policies have so far understood gender and how policies have changed. In addition, research has been conducted to explore ways in which "The Framework Act on Gender Equality" can be changed for the better through the concept of intersectionality.

In 2021, South Korea decided not to criminalize women's abortions. The decision was made to further consider women's options and autonomy in pregnancy and childbirth.

By conducting surveys and in-depth interviews with Korean female welfare workers, investigators focused on examining gender awareness through various questions about gender perspectives and analyzing women's gender roles and gender identities in their families. According to the analysis, gender awareness was very weak in Korean women's welfare policy, but awareness of its importance and necessity was high. Women's welfare officials are often aware of women's gender roles as "dependents" and "caregivers," which results in a reflection in the policy's implementation process. Therefore, it seems that there will need to be a follow-up plan to improve adult awareness of those who can play an important role in the enforcement process.

Family life

Despite the rapid changes in society due to industrialization, it was not converted to a gender-equal family culture due to the influence of the traditional family norms. In particular, Familism, which has been emphasized through the industrialization process, has continued to be family-centered and patriarchal, emphasizing the safety of the entire family rather than the individual. This Familism consequently infringed on women's unique rights by defining women as secondary to their family composition. In South Korea's history, which has disparaged women's rights, gender inequality has been strengthened, reproduced through the family's life culture. For example, the traditional marriage and kinship system, which used women as objects of paternalism, has excluded women from ancestor worship, inheritance, and possession. However, the recent debate over the abolition of the family headship system in South Korea has emerged as an important social issue. So, women's attempts to respect their rights and choices as individuals are spreading beyond their families to social areas. These women's attempts are causing social conflicts such as gender and family. Modern patriarchy is no different from the deformed succession of pre-modern family ethics. Familism in South Korea is now at a crossroads that must be transformed into gender-equal and democratic family ethics.

Professional life

A study was conducted to justify the Work-Family Conflict scale (WFC) revised and developed by Ginamon and Rich for married working women in Korea. The work-family conflict measure considered both directions, "work to a family," and "family to a work," to better understand the various roles of women in the work-family domain. Through this test, a discriminatory feasibility test between work-family conflict and work-family fostering revealed a significant negative correlation. This result supported the validity of the WFC. Simultaneous inspection of WFC and workplace satisfaction confirmed validity, and as the work-family conflict grows, women's work satisfaction decreases. And it has created the prejudice that the workplace of female workers is where they stay "temporarily."

Korea's gender system serves as the basis for the social rights of non-regular female workers in structural relationships with the labor market and welfare state. Women's irregular labor in Korea is the main form of "temporary" employment and is characterized by job insecurity, low wages, long-term labor, and exclusion from national welfare and corporate welfare. From a social perspective, all types of rights based on their status as workers, parents, spouses, and citizens are vulnerable: paid labor, unpaid labor, unpaid labor, and care rights. Until now, it has been interpreted that female non-regular workers are treated worse than male non-regular workers due to the influence of the gender system, which defines women as care-giver and secondary workers. However, the “male livelihood support” function, which provides married women with the opposite of unpaid labor, only works for middle-class married women in Korea, and in this sense, Korea's gender system is more of a "layered" male livelihood support rather than a "typical" male livelihood support. And the poor social rights of female irregular workers are responsible for all three closely linked structures: a social insurance-driven welfare state, a dual labour market system, and a gender system in the male-dependent model. But the most important of these is the “dual labour market system.” Without solving the problem of the dual labour market system, it is unlikely that the social rights of non-regular female workers will be improved.

In 2021, South Korea's actress Youn Yuh-Jung becomes the first Korean actress nominated for Oscar. The nominated movie "Minari" is about the settlement of Korean families who immigrated to the United States. In this movie, she played the role of Monica's grandmother, Soon-Ja. She won the Oscar for best-supporting actress for her performance in "Minari" and made history by becoming the first Korean actor to win an Academy Award.

Crimes against women

In Korean online culture, stereotypes, discrimination, demeaning, or contempt, which regard women as sexual tools, such as focusing on appearance and age, replacing women with body parts or genitals, are becoming commonplace. The important problem is that even if these expressions are written off as being done by some malicious people online, the production and distribution of hateful online expressions risks reinforcing stereotypes or leading to generalization. Disgusting expressions are being expanded and reproduced in ways that solidify and materialize prejudice against women. And these are becoming out of control. So, there need for education policy efforts to pursue gender equality in the online space.

In 2021, a digital sex crime called Nth room case occurred in South Korea. The suspects using messenger apps such as Telegram to lure and threaten the victims, filming and distributing sexual exploitation. Recently, research has been active in South Korea on ways to reasonably respond to digital sex crimes such as the Nth room case. The matter of the research is to face the lack of punishment for digital sex crimes so far and to emphasize that digital sex crimes are also violence and crimes against women. Therefore, as a reasonable countermeasure to digital sex crimes, it is necessary to strengthen the punishment for illegal photographs and to actively investigate them. In addition, technology is required to block the spread of illegal photographs. Finally, there is an opinion that "watching" illegal photographs also should be severely punished.

Prospect

"촛불소녀" (Candle Light Girl) character used in South Korea Protest Against US Beef Agreement 2008.

 

The hate expression for Korean women in the 2000s has been moving toward racialization, as can be seen in the expression "Kimchi girl." In this situation, the "Megalian" phenomenon occurred in which female parties in their 20s and 30s actively carry out hate speech. These women claim to employ a mirroring strategy by parodying the misogyny of men. In other words, the existing patriarchal gender discourse is materialized in reverse on a narrative level, emphasizing its sexual discrimination and contradiction. Korean women in their 20s and 30s were called "Candle Light Girl" in 2008. These were symbols of empathy for others and solidarity with minorities. “Megalian” results from the prevailing hatred against women in Korean society, the absence of a discourse on racism, and the focus on the encouragement of patriarchal family and child-care in women’s policy. In 2021, the Megalian site has been closed, but mirroring practices initiated by Megalian are still being called by radical feminists in Korea. Before unnecessary conflicts and extreme gender-based compatibility intensify, the Candle Light Girl aspiration for democracy, which was extremely radical in its early stage of development, can be developed into another form.

Over the past 20 years, Korean society has achieved a lot in terms of social interest in women or institutional achievement, and women's research has also achieved quantitative growth, with expanding academic fields and diversifying research topics. However, it is hard to say that such quantitative growth of research extends the influence of feminism. Rather, the feminism of backlash or callousness and hatred is spreading in the last decades. The women's movement has achieved a lot since the 1990s in pursuit of participatory politics such as "sexualization" and "governance," but faces a crisis caused by the loss of identity of the women's movement and the disappearance of progressive frames. Recently, the expansion of neo-liberalism has deepened the problem of irregular workers in the female labor force and job insecurity. In addition, the increase in work-family conflicts has led to widespread instability in women's labor and personal lives. In particular, women in their 20s and 30s are immersed in individualism and consumer capitalism amid social anxiety. So they are moving away from the identity of feminism. Meanwhile, the Korean family system is in danger because of the conflict between individualism and the preservation of traditional patriarchy. Nevertheless, most women's studies remain in studies that merely suggest phenomenological analysis or fragmentary policies, and do not find answers to essential signs of crisis. The decrease in critical women's research is also linked to the crisis of feminism. To revitalize feminism, which has been fading since the 2000s, it is time to seek more critical and practical awareness of women's reality.