By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The head of the UN think tank seeking gender equality said she looks forward to seeing women political leaders in Korea to sharing their expertise with less developed countries in a bid to move the global gender movement forward.
``South Korea is in a very good position to lead the way toward more women in politics,'' said Carmen Moreno, director of the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW, www.un-instraw.org).
Based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, UN-INSTRAW is the only U.N. institute established to empower women through research and training. Moreno has led the institute since 2003.
In an e-mail interview with The Korea Times, the former ambassador of Mexico said Korea can help women in Africa and Latin America achieve growing representation in the political arena with its expertise.
She also stated that the institute is eager to help connect women throughout the continents. Moreno agreed that electoral quota systems have proven to be an effective tool to increase the representation of women in politics if properly enforced.
Despite a sharp growth during the last decade, Korea still has a long way to go. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Korea ranked 82nd in female representation in parliament.
She hinted the bottom-up approach could be effective for greater participation of women in the political arena in the long run. The director underscored the municipal-level needs to make progress in increasing female representation.
A survey conducted by the institute found the municipal level is the space women participate most in economic, social and cultural life, but also where they occupy the least political positions.
Moreno admitted there are still many hidden or invisible obstacles, and that socio-cultural constraints are behind the surprisingly low level of political participation of women in many countries even after legal barriers being lifted.
She said the primary goal of the U.N.-sponsored institute is to include more women in politics and get elected female leaders who care about women and their concerns. The institute has played a pivotal role in building awareness on gender equality in the international community since it was created in 1976. With several ongoing regional programs in 10 Latin American countries, UN-INSTRAW seeks to promote greater female political participation in government through research, training and public policy advocacy.
``There can be no democracy without the participation of women,'' said Moreno. ``Including women in their leadership will put local governments, as well as national parliaments, in a better position to make well-balanced decisions for their constituents.''
Local gender experts agreed Korea has made a big stride in gender movement since the 1990s, and women's rights movement in this country is literally in full swing.
Political scientist Kim Hyung-joon of Myongji University observed full-blown gender movement has motivated the National Assembly to see several women-friendly legislations in the fields of childcare services, anti-sex trade and gender mainstream.
In April, a group of government officials from Indonesia joined a study tour to the Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education (KIGEPE) to attend a 5-day training session on gender equality policies.
Some women's groups have provided their China chapters with technical assistance in fund-raising and membership recruitment.
In an interview, co-president of Korea Women's Associations United (KWAU) Jung Hyun-baek said Korea emerged as a leading nation in the gender movement by saying gender experts in Japan are impressed by the stunning growth in the movement in Korea.
The resilient civic sector has influenced the parliament to take a big step toward gender equality. The 2004 National Assembly elections saw a big jump in female representation in the Assembly (13 percent), which has doubled from that of the previous one (5.9 percent).
The rate of female lawmakers has continued to grow since the 1996 elections which only marked 3 percent of female lawmakers among the entire assembly members. Political parties put electoral quota systems in place since the 2004 elections.