Fate of gender equality ministry back in limbo

The sign for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is displayed at the ministry headquarters in the Government Complex Seoul, Sunday. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party said on the same day that he would carry out his election pledge to abolish the ministry. Yonhap

Experts call abolishment too harsh, unrealistic, with long way ahead to gender equality

By Jung Da-min

The fate of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has emerged as a controversial post-election issue, as President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has refused to back down from his campaign pledge to abolish the ministry after winning the election on March 9.

Yoon and his party, the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP), have accused the ministry of dividing men and women with certain policy measures such as setting quotas for women in public- and private-sector jobs, and claim the ministry's existence amounts to "reverse discrimination."

But their election strategy targeting young male voters' support also drove away women. In fact, female voters under age 60 overwhelmingly turned their backs on the PPP and cast their ballots in favor of Yoon's election rival, Lee Jae-myung of the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party speaks during a press conference at the party headquarters on Seoul's Yeouido, Sunday. Joint Press Corps

The debate surrounding the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is not new, as similar pros-and-cons debates have been held since the ministry was first established in 2001 under the liberal Kim Dae-jung administration.

The inaugural name of the ministry was the Ministry of Women, until it was changed in 2004 under the subsequent liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration to its current name, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The English name for the ministry has a different nuance from the original Korean name, which translates directly to the "Ministry of Women and Family."

Including the word "women" in the Korean name of the ministry is related to the purpose of its creation: to narrow the gap in the statuses of men and women by promoting women's rights ― otherwise known as gender equality ― and this has recently been ruffling the feathers of many young men.

Park Chang-hwan, a political commentator and a professor at Jangan University, said the ministry has failed to address properly the fundamental structural problems facing women, as it is accused of creating the wrong impression that promoting women's rights comes at the expense of "men's rights."

"One of the first major policies the ministry carried out after its establishment was the abolishment of the extra points system for men who have completed their mandatory military service... Removing that perk means that most men sacrifice their careers by serving in the military for years without any compensation (beyond the monthly salaries they are provided)," Park said.

"Such policies which the ministry said were aimed at leveling the playing field for women caused a backlash among young men, leading them to harbor hard feelings toward the ministry, which paved the way later for hostility toward the feminist movement. Then the ministry was urged to take a balanced stance over such thorny issues, but it failed to do so while giving the impression that it was taking women's side only."

Members of a women's rights group hold a press conference to call for the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, in front of the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, Monday, accusing the ministry of failing to fulfill its purpose of protecting women's rights by maintaining silence on political heavyweights' sex crimes and provoking gender conflicts rather than solving them. Yonhap

Some political watchers pointed out that the ministry has at times failed to serve its original purpose of protecting women's rights.

When former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, an activist-turned-politician who won local elections on the DPK's ticket, was embroiled in a sexual harassment allegation before he committed suicide in July 2020, some DPK lawmakers referred to the victim as "the woman who claims to be the victim," which elicited criticism from the public.

At the time, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family did not take any active measures nor issue a strong reprimand of DPK members or any others who tried to downplay the allegation against Park. Rather, then-Minister Lee Jung-ok said that the 2021 April by-elections following the revelations of sexual harassment by Mayor Park and former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don, also a DPK politician, would provide "an opportunity for the people to learn about gender sensitivity."

Cha Jae-won, a professor of special affairs at the Catholic University of Pusan, said, "What is behind the controversies over the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is the criticism against the hypocrisy of the ruling liberal bloc, which created the ministry."

Cha said that the PPP's Lee Jun-seok, who won the PPP's leadership election with great support from young men in their 20s and 30s, was among those who first caught such anti-feminist sentiment among young male voters and made use of it for his own political ends.

"Lee took this anti-feminist sentiment as an opportunity for his political rise to the position of PPP chairman and again used it during the presidential campaign to help boost Yoon's support rate," Cha said.

Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly on Seoul's Yeouido, March 10. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun

But these political watchers also called it premature to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, despite the criticism from some that it was not resolving gender conflicts.

Cha said the ministry is a unique government organization with no parallel in many other countries. He said the ministry was first created by former President Kim Dae-jung, who considered himself a feminist, with the hope of not having to exist forever, but of being able to disappear once full gender equality is realized in Korea.

While the media have often focused on gender conflicts, diverging from Korea's actual deep-rooted problem of gender inequality, the country still has a long way to go before achieving full gender equality.

Korea ranked 102nd out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum. Of the 38 OECD member nations, Korea ranked highest in the pay gap between male and female employees in 2020, standing at 31.5 percent, meaning that women earned 31.5 percent less than men on average.

Members of a women's rights group call on President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party to withdraw his plan to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, during a press conference at the headquarters of Women's Center for Equality and Peace in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo District, Thursday. Yonhap

Despite this reality, the country's stagnating economy and rising economic inequality, in which many young people feel frustrated about fewer good job opportunities and soaring housing prices, have created high competition among the younger generations, dividing them along gender lines, according to political watchers.

"Criticism that the ministry's handling of gender conflicts has been poor is valid. But we also need to ask if the ministry should be taking the sole responsibility for gender conflicts, when it receives a very small portion of the national budget and such conflicts are fundamental problems of a capitalist society," Jangan University professor Park said.

He said that politicians who exploit such conflicts among the public for their own political ends should be blamed for deepening the social conflicts and divisions.

"It is true that such social conflicts and divisions were there, but politicians have brought them to the forefront or center of society, stressing that such conflicts are facts, rather than resolving them," he said.

Members of a women's rights group hold a press conference in front of Gangwon Provincial Office, Thursday, to call for President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party to withdraw his plan to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family,. Yonhap

Cha said that abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is an unrealistic idea, as doing so would fuel gender conflicts even further.

He also said that the DPK, which holds the majority in the National Assembly with 172 out of the total 300 seats, does not have any reason to support the idea, as the party is in the midst of rebuilding its strategies to strengthen its support from swing voters, especially young women in their 20s.

Right after the presidential election, minor progressive Justice Party presidential candidate Rep. Sim Sang-jung received about 1.2 billion won in political donations overnight, as many young women in their 20s and 30s wrote online that they had voted strategically for the DPK's candidate, despite their support for Sim, only to stop Yoon, who had run an anti-feminist campaign.