Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Half of women scared of strangers at night: survey
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Many women are opening up about their experiences and fears of possible attacks, especially sexual assault, when encountering a man at night. And in many cases, such fears are not an “overreaction,” as seen in the recent viral video clip in which a man tries to enter a woman's home in Sillim-dong, southern Seoul.
Kim Hye-su, a 49-year-old office worker who lives alone in Seoul, encountered a slightly drunken man in the elevator of her apartment on her way home at night. The man pressed a button for a floor higher than hers and she got off the elevator first, but she kept glancing back, fearing the man might follow her.
“I haven't felt such fear for years, but the video clip scared me and now I'm constantly looking over my shoulder,” Kim said.
Another office worker, Noh Jin-seon, 34, living alone in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, presses elevator buttons for different floors at her apartment to hide which one she lives on when she senses someone is following her.
Noh said when she happens to take the elevator with a man at night, she always waits for him to press the button first.
“I know many men complain about being treated as potential criminals, but they should realize woman living alone can be easy targets of crime. They may feel offended, but should know we worry about our lives every day,” Noh said.
A survey showed Thursday that Kim and Noh are not particularly sensitive as nearly half of women are scared of strangers they encounter at night.
According to the survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs on 3,873 adults from last June to September, 87.4 percent of men said they had never experienced fear when encountering a stranger on their way home at night.
Compared to the high figure for men, only 54 percent of women gave the same answer, meaning 46 percent of them have felt such fear.
Regarding the frequency of such feelings, 2.98 percent of the women surveyed said they were affected “every day,” followed by 4.34 percent who said once or twice a week, 12.34 percent once or twice a month, and 26.41 percent once or twice a year.
Thirty-six percent of women also said they were scared of physical contact with others in crowded places, a feeling experienced by only 10.17 percent of men.
In the viral video clip, when a young woman steps out of the elevator and enters her home, a man runs after her and tries to prevent the door from closing. As he failed by seconds, he then pushes the door and even shines his cellphone flashlight on the keypad to try and make out the woman's finger placements.
After the video went viral on YouTube, the suspect turned himself in to police and a court issued an arrest warrant.
Amid the growing safety concerns among women living alone, Seoul City said Thursday it will provide those living in Yangcheon and Gwanak ― which have high ratios of such households ― with four types of security items.
The four are a digital video intercom that enables the resident to check on people outside, a sensor that rings a loud alarm when a window or door is opened forcibly from outside, a secondary door locking device, and a wireless device that sends an emergency message to police.
For 50 stores run by women working alone in the two districts, the city government will also provide them with the wireless device which can also contact the CCTV control centers in the district offices.