Central, local governments hit over gender insensitivity

By Bahk Eun-ji

The central and local governments have been criticized for their outdated perception of gender roles, after the city government published content related to pregnancy that was found to contain a number of statements readers found to be discriminatory.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government opened a website, “Pregnancy and childbirth information center,” in 2019, to provide information on pregnancy, childbirth and relevant services provided by the city government.

However, some of the information on the website about pregnancy implied that only women are responsible for housework and childcare.

In the “preparation during end-of-pregnancy” section, the website said a woman who is likely to deliver a baby in a couple of weeks needs to prepare side dishes so her husband can eat while she is away from home after giving birth, as she has to spend days or weeks in hospital or at a postnatal care center.

“Get rid of old food in the refrigerator and prepare three or four side dishes that family members like. If you have some instant food prepared, your husband who is not good at cooking can easily prepare it,” it said.

Also, it said such woman needs to take care of their families' clothes. “As you'll be at the hospital for about three to seven days, you should prepare clean underwear, socks, shirts, handkerchiefs, and outerwear in the drawer so that your husband and children can change.”

In addition, it said, “Don't put off doing house chores such as cleaning or washing dishes, then it will help you manage your weight during pregnancy without extra exercise.”

Heavy criticism mounted on the website, with comments that included: “It treats women as housekeepers,” “The husband should help the pregnant wife instead of the wife helping the other family members,” “It means women should try to look 'slender' even when they are pregnant?”

Following the criticisms, the content is no longer available on the website.

A video clip made by the health ministry also drew criticism for such gender stereotyping, in addition to earlier criticism that the video, in which people dance in a house to overcome emotional difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraged activities which could lead to noise complaints from neighbours.

Many pointed out an adult woman in the clip was wearing an apron and a girl was wearing a short school uniform skirt, while men were in suits or other comfortable outfits.

Earlier last year, the health ministry's anti-smoking advertisement was also denounced for introducing a schoolboy as “good at debating after watching a lot of news” and a schoolgirl as “one who loves make up.”

A series of promotional materials released by the Prime Minister's Office last month were also criticized for causing controversy over misogynistic content.

The office posted a three-cut cartoon on its official account of Twitter on Dec. 14, saying the prime minister will help people overcome COVID-19-induced difficulties. The cartoon showed a woman shedding tears with a runny nose, saying, “I can't go outside freely because of the pandemic, and my skin is irritated from wearing a mask. I'm angry because of the coronavirus. How can I relieve this stress?”

As soon as the cartoon was released, criticism erupted via social media that the cartoon was out of touch with reality and misogynistic.

The Women's Party issued a statement the next day, demanding an immediate apology from Chung, and said, “The cartoon just depicted young women as only complaining of mask-triggered skin trouble while in reality many women are suffering from much more serious problems such as unemployment and the economic crisis due to the pandemic.”