Speaker under fire for sexist remarks on Women's Day

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang speaks during a ceremony at the National Assembly to mark International Women's Day on Friday. / Courtesy of National Assembly

By Park Ji-won

The biggest challenge facing women in South Korea today is patriarchy-driven prejudice. This is especially evident in the realm of politics, positions and perception.

In a country where the Confucian-oriented mindset still matters to those in power, gender inequality may not be because of how women actually act but because of how people perceive their actions.

While a key to tackling such challenges facing society is to ensure women are at the table making decisions, recent remarks by National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang are regarded as highly controversial and representing an outdated attitude toward women.

On the sidelines of his congratulatory speech in the National Assembly to mark this year's International Women's Day, Moon abruptly said, “Men are more pathetic than women. Ask every man aged over 50. In that age group, what men need the most is, first my miss, second my wife, third my spouse, fourth a housewife, and fifth my children's mother.”

Then he continued, “In the past, if a woman gave birth to two sons, it was considered winning a gold medal. Nowadays, it is not good.” He repeated himself saying, “Giving birth to two daughters is considered winning a gold medal.” before going on to say “Giving birth to a daughter is winning a silver medal. Giving birth to a son is winning a bronze medal. Giving birth to two sons is hanging oneself.”

Female groups were angered, and the comments also drew heavy criticism online.

“I couldn't believe what I read. These outdated norms of an old generation roll back the wheel of history,” Lee Na-yong, a sociology professor at Seoul's ChungAng University, said in a Facebook post.

A Twitter user said, “The speaker Moon definitely doesn't know the core meaning of International Women's Day. The fact that people like to have a daughter over a son and that middle-aged men need a wife are because they need female's caring labor.”

Critics also said the remarks were “inappropriate” for an Assembly leader because the comments were directly linked to “gender stereotyping.”

Lee Jin-ok, head of Korea Women's Political Solidarity, asked the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leadership to clarify Moon's comments, demanding female lawmakers call for an immediate correction.

Moon's office told The Korea Times the office felt sorry for the fuss; however, it defended him, saying, “The older generation thinks that way. We should understand that. He made jokes to make a comfortable atmosphere before making a formal speech.”

Moon later said in the speech, “Problems restricting women's economic activities, such as the pay gap and unstable employment, should be resolved first.”

Other high-profile politicians have also made controversial comments about women.

DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan said in December last year during a meeting with a visiting Vietnamese delegation, “A lot of Korean men marry Vietnamese women because they prefer them over women of other countries.”

Civil rights organizations and opposition parties immediately criticized Lee's comments.

Meanwhile, hundreds of citizens took to the streets in cities to commemorate the day and protest against such issues as the gender pay gap, violence against women and abortion rights.

South Korea remains the country with the highest percentage of low-paid female workers, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data released Feb. 25. Statistics from 2017 showed that 35.3 percent of female workers in the South were categorized as low-wage earners, who were paid less than two-thirds of the median income of workers in other OECD countries.