Gender equality ministry deserves better

When hundreds of thousands of South Koreans flooded the streets last winter to demand the ouster of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol, young women were undeniably the driving force behind the mass protests. The presence of women in their 20s and 30s — many of them waving K-pop light sticks — was so prominent that the mass defiance was dubbed the “light stick revolution,” with politicians hailing the women for “saving our democracy.”

Now those days already feel like a distant, forgotten chapter.

After Yoon rose to power in 2022 on an openly anti-feminist platform, efforts for gender equality stalled and past gains in women’s rights came under attack. His ouster and the election of Lee Jae Myung as president raised hopes that years of setbacks would be reversed, given the role women played in bringing Yoon down.

But less than two months into the new administration, those hopes are hanging by a thread. The controversial nomination of Kang Sun-woo — who withdrew her nomination as the gender equality minister on Wednesday — is the most glaring example.

The embattled ministry, which Yoon once threatened to dismantle, deserves a leader who not only understands its mission but also is committed to fiercely defending the values it represents. Kang proved unfit for the role, and Lee must ensure that his next choice is someone truly up to the challenge.

Kang, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, withdrew her nomination amid a slew of accusations of abuse of power over her former aides, including making them handle Kang’s household chores. But beyond the personal controversy, her stance on many key policies for gender equality was questionable at best and, at worst, regressive.

When asked about her views on the creation of a law banning discrimination based on personal traits like gender, ethnicity or sexual identities, Kang said that the anti-discrimination law could create social “conflicts” and thus “more social consensus” was needed. On reforming the current rape law based on the use of violence to one based on lack of consent, Kang repeated the need for “social consensus” — which usually means “no” in Seoul’s political vernacular.

She voiced the same reservations on other key issues, such as introducing more comprehensive sex and gender equality education at school and a law to recognize a broader range of families.

Those issues are central to the mission of the ministry tasked to combat gender discrimination and violence. Kang’s tepid response stood in sharp contrast to many former ministers who were vocal advocates for the rights of women and social minorities.

South Korean rights groups have campaigned for years to create the anti-discrimination law and to reform the outdated rape law — measures also recommended by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Many participants in last winter’s protests also desperately called for these changes, hoping for a more equal and fair society and not just a change in political leaders. An analysis of more than 1,000 onstage remarks made by the protestors cited the anti-discrimination law and a reformed rape law as key demands.

Comprehensive sex and gender equality education at school is needed more than ever as boys and young men are exposed to toxic, misogynistic content on the internet — a culture Yoon capitalized on to win the 2022 election. Experts say that embracing a wider range of companionships, such as unmarried couples or friends living together, as family could help South Korea’s aging populace care for each other with less loneliness and isolation.

Beyond that, South Korea continues to rank among the worst in the industrialized world in terms of women’s rights. It has reported the biggest gender pay gap among the OECD member nations every single year for nearly three decades. According to the “glass-ceiling index” by The Economist magazine, which seeks to measure the role and influence of women in the workforce, South Korea has consistently ranked as the worst place to be a working woman among OECD economies since the report was first published in 2016, only being overtaken by Turkey last year.

Patriarchal norms ingrained within family life place a disproportionate burden of childcare and household chores on women, so much so that even in families where women are the family breadwinners and men stay at home, women still spend more time on domestic duties. Such sexist norms are often blamed as one of the reasons why so many women in South Korea shun marriage and childbirth and the country’s birthrates remain the world’s lowest.

These issues lie at the core of many problems facing South Korean society today, and the importance of the gender ministry’s role in addressing them cannot be overstated. Yet the smallest of the ministries, accounting for only 0.26 percent of the national budget, has been chronically underfunded and understaffed. It has also been relentlessly attacked as a convenient target for populist politicians.

This must change from the years of paralysis under the previous administration, during which hatred towards women and marginalized groups ran rampant and largely unchecked. Appointing the right person to lead the gender equality ministry is a crucial first step towards not only revitalizing the ministry, but also responding to the voices of women who took to the streets to save our democracy.

Jung Ha-won is a journalist and the author of "Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide."