Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Gender equality policies virtually absent in presidential race
Civic activists advocating for women's rights hold a demonstration urging presidential contenders to address gender-based violence in Seoul, April 27. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
Candidates fail to reflect various needs by women
Gender equality has been largely absent from the policy proposals of Korea’s all-male presidential contenders, drawing criticism that the demands and interests of young women voters — who played a prominent role in the protests for the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol — are being overlooked.
The criticism comes after a decline in the nation’s gender equality index for the first time, reaching an all-time low under the Yoon administration, which nearly abolished the gender equality ministry.
The liberal Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) front-runner, Lee Jae-myung, submitted his top 10 policy commitments to the National Election Commission on Monday, with only a few references to gender equality or women.
Lee’s labor pledge included the introduction of a wage equality system, while his small business pledge contained provisions to strengthen safety measures for women business owners. It also promised to enhance punishment for social violence and improve protection measures for victims, though there was no mention of women specifically.
This contrasts with the measures Lee took during the previous presidential election three years ago, when he proposed a separate category of campaign pledges specifically for women. His proposals aimed to address gender violence and digital sex crimes, while also supporting gender representation in top positions within the government and business.
Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, speaks during a campaign rally in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. Joint Press Corp.
Although the party said the entire pledge book, to be published later, would include a separate section dedicated to women, there has been no mention of gender equality in Lee’s campaign rallies thus far.
When reporters asked him on May 6 whether he would announce women-related pledges, he responded, "Why do you keep dividing men and women? They are all Koreans."
The party is reportedly finalizing Lee’s election pledges aimed at women voters. However, these pledges are not specifically designed to address concerns related to his previously announced commitments. The party is also considering renaming and reforming the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to restore and elevate its status.
Meanwhile, the conservative People Power Party presidential candidate, Kim Moon-soo, is considering abolishing the gender ministry and replacing it with either a Ministry of Future Youth and Family or a Ministry of Population, Youth and Family.
His pledges about women are also mainly focused on child birth and child care, including housing assistance for newlywed couples, infertility treatment and financial support for raising children, not fully reflecting the various needs of women in diverse situations. He also pledged to introduce a military service system under which women would also be obligated to serve.
Lee Jun-seok, Korea’s youngest presidential candidate from the minor conservative Reform Party, reiterated his proposal to abolish the gender ministry as part of a broader ministerial reform plan. He criticized the DPK’s proposal to reform the ministry, calling it “populist” and “ineffective.”
Kim Moon-soo, presidential candidate of the conservative People Power Party, speaks during a campaign rally in Ulsan, Tuesday. Joint Press Corp.
The minor progressive Justice Party’s Kwon Young-kook is so far the only contender who has offered any sort of policy proposal related to gender equality and women.
“I am a feminist who dreams of a country where women are safe and respected, everyone is free from gender stereotypes, and no one is discriminated against based on their sexual orientation,” he said Tuesday.
His policy proposal includes elevating the status of the gender minister to deputy prime minister, enacting a comprehensive antidiscrimination law and tackling gender and family violence, as well as digital sex crimes, by establishing a department dedicated to misogynistic crimes.
He also plans to revise the civil law to allow children to have either of their parents' family names at birth and implement a gender equality wage disclosure system to tackle the ongoing wage gap between men and women.
Kwon Young-kook, presidential candidate of the minor progressive Justice Party, speaks during a campaign rally in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
Korean women in their 20s and 30s, who garnered both local and global attention during the impeachment crisis due to their overwhelming presence at the massive rallies demanding Yoon's ouster, have called for several gender equality measures.
Local news outlet Women News surveyed 1,000 women voters aged 20 to 39 and found that respondents are calling for the establishment of a medical system to safely terminate pregnancies, the introduction of punishment for nonconsensual sex and the implementation of a comprehensive antidiscrimination law.
Experts urged the need to include their demands in the political agenda.
“Politicians say that removal of Yoon Suk Yeol was possible thanks to the ‘revolution of light’ (referring to the impeachment rallies), but they are trying to erase those who protected the square, such as women, sexual minorities, immigrants, laborers and farmers,” Kim Min Mun-jeong, the head of the Korea Women’s Associations United, said.
“Such politics of discrimination, exclusion and hatred should no longer be acceptable. We must recognize and accept that gender equality is essential to democracy,” she said.
Kim Eun-joo, director of the Center for Korean Women and Politics, criticized the presidential candidates' limited focus on gender equality and women's issues, calling it a "gender elimination strategy" that "dilutes gender discrimination by framing it as a nonexistent problem within a universalist discourse."
Korean women make up the vast majority of victims of both offline and online crimes and face the largest gender pay gap among the 38 OECD member nations.