Gender No Longer Barrier to Women in Politics
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
``Korea is ready for a woman President," Rep. Chung Mi-kyung of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said Friday.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Chung, 43, said that if a growing number of women were in the legislature or key governmental posts, people would pay more attention to their qualifications than their gender when asked to vote.
Chung was first elected to the National Assembly in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in the April 9 elections.
There are currently 41 female lawmakers making up 13.7 percent of the total 299 Assembly members. The new legislature's four-year term began Friday.
Three lawmakers ― former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, Kim Young-sun of the GNP and Lee Mi-kyung of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) ― became four-term lawmakers, and three others, including Choo Mi-ae of the UDP, became three-term legislators.
Park garnered 88.6 percent of the vote, receiving the second highest support rate after Rep. Park Joo-sun of the UDP.
Chung, a former prosecutor, said gender should not be a barrier to women in politics anymore, adding ambitious women politicians seeking presidency in the future would not be stopped by such things.
She claims the barrier was, ironically, set by women, not men.
``Women tend to use stricter standards when asked to judge same sex counterparts at work. But this is not the case for their male counterparts. Men are more tolerable towards their same sex coworkers than women, and this probably explains why little cooperation takes place between women,'' the lawmaker said.
Last year, a group of political analysts speculated that gender explained a lot in the defeat of former GNP Chairwoman Park in the party primaries last year to her rival Lee Myung-bak.
Chung claims there are two different types of women leaders ― those who rise to power by playing the gender card and those who purposefully ignore their gender identity in an attempt to successfully adjust to the male-oriented society.
``The two conventional leadership models for women could turn out to be ineffective at a time when a growing number of women are taking leadership posts in politics and business,'' she said.
Instead, Chung says only those who are equipped with ability and networking skills can expect to survive.
Last year, she published a book, titled ``Be An Aspiring President, Not Woman President'' in which she suggested the core elements for successful women leaders based on her personal experiences and insight.
``In a nutshell, my point was that capability and strong networking will help aspiring women leaders get closer to real power,'' she said.