South Korea: Home to OECD's Thickest 'Glass Ceiling'

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

South Korea must solve its deep-rooted gender bias problem.

If you are a Korean and wish to become a journalist, you may be familiar with a South Korean online community called “Arang.” With about 130,000 members, Arang has acted as a salon for hundreds and thousands of aspiring journalists, where they not only share their dreams but also discuss major social issues in South Korea.

One of the popular topics being discussed on Arang these days is whether a South Korean daily, Kyunghyang Shinmun, discriminated against women when hiring entry-level reporters. The issue began when one of the applicants claimed that she was discriminated against by Kyunghyang because she was female. After several months, Kyunghyang finally responded that there was no discrimination against women and all the selection processes were done impartially. Still, the accusation continues as the applicant wants the case to be officially inspected by the relevant inspection organizations.

Many perceived this particular case as a typical example of discrimination against women, which is prevalent in South Korean

society. An annual Gender Gap report released by the World Economic Forum has South Korea ranked 117th out of 142 nations, while The Economist reported that South Korea has the strongest glass ceiling off all the OECD nations. These are just two examples showing a deep-rooted gender bias in South Korea.

  Global Gender Gap Index 2014

The South Korean daily Seoul Shinmun pointed out in an editorial that creating a diverse talent pool is crucial for providing new momentum for social development. One of the ways of a creating a more diverse talent pool is to utilize female talents — and the ability to do that is directly related to national competitiveness, the editorial added. In this regard, rampant discrimination against women in South Korea is nothing but harmful for the country.

The situation is ironic, given that South Korea elected its first female president in 2012. The Korean people had high hopes that the first female president could bring about a dramatic change to South Korea’s widespread gender discrimination.

In fact, one of  President Park Geun-hye’s major campaign promises was aimed at female voters, especially housewives with children. Park promised she would help women balance work and childcare by adopting new systems at schools and in the workplace. She also promised she would nurture more female talent, so that South Korea could achieve gender balance in various sectors.

Some say it’s too early to judge whether Park has achieved her pledges successfully or not, as it has been only two years since her administration kicked off. But according to Korean Women’s Association United, Park has achieved very little when it comes to getting rid of discrimination against women.

About 1,000 members of civil organizations, including Korean Women’s Association United, gathered on March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day with a pledge that they will try their best to improve female rights in South Korea. The association pointed out that frustration is increasing as social inequality in South Korea is deepening and discrimination and hatred against women is becoming more severe.

A recent survey by Gallup Korea showed that Park still has more support from women than men. She has two and half years left in her term; will it be enough time for her to live up to women’s expectation?

Netizens Baffled by Korea’s Gender Gap Index

Comments from Naver:

bslo****: Reverse discrimination is worse these days…

anfl****:The survey is right because men are the recipients of reverse discrimination.

lemo****: Yet another article for a gender war, ke ke ke.

duqw****:Of course. It is unconstitutional to have female enlisted soldiers but it is okay to have female officers. Does that make sense?

dpeb****: It must mean distorted equality.

stan****: Boss: Miss, please get water for our guest.

Woman: I didn’t come here to do that kind of work, you know?

Boss: Mister, please get water for our guest.

Man: Yes, sir.

Boss: Miss, please refill the water barrel.

Woman: I didn’t come here to do that kind of work, you know?

Boss: Mister, please refill the water barrel.

Man: Yes, sir.

Boss: Mister, you are getting promoted this time.

Woman: Are you discriminating against me because I’m a woman?

pon0****: I’m a part-time worker at Everland. Men do all the work while women act like pretty folding screens. But we get paid the same hourly wage…

'rhfe****: It is all because of the Ministry of Women.

jyh0****: They mean the gender gap is big in Korea because men are discriminated against, right?

rhak****: Although women don’t have to serve in the military for 2 years, it is right for them to do voluntary work for the country. Lack of care givers is such a problem these days. What if it is mandatory for women to work as care givers for 2 years? Normally, it costs 100,000 won to hire a care giver for a day and there are not enough of them at the hospitals. The cost is a huge burden for the patient’s family but it is hard for them to quit their job to take care of the patient by themselves. This problem can be solved if we implement mandatory 2-year care giving service. It is the best to legally demand young Korean women do it on the wage of a soldiers, bed and board.

source the diplomat, world economic forum, the economist, koreabang, Seoul Shinmun



Omona where does your country rank?  links x, x

Comments

[msgrottesca.livejournal.com]

Those comments are so embarrassing. Yes, how hard it is to be a straight, cis male. So, so hard.

[blowfishprince.livejournal.com]

my country isn't even on the list. I'm from PH btw.
seeing the comments, looks like it's obvious why korea has a serious issue on gender gap.

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

it is I put the links above next to my question

[donutism.livejournal.com]

What in the world are those comments

My country is 13th on the list, not too bad I guess

[theemii.livejournal.com]

God those comments are pathetic..

And to answer OP's question my country is 4th on the list!

[rackyourbrains.livejournal.com]

118, I can't speak on this lol. Where exactly do they get data for this esp. for bigger African countries (going to re-read the post to check, so ignore me if it's mentioned).

[imahurricane.livejournal.com]

ughhhhhhhh the comments make my skin crawls. yes yes sure it's hard to be a man in this society. well try being a woman for one day.

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

I am not a woman but I totally empathize with what women go through taling about reverse discrimination/misandry is
like talking about reverse racism total BULLSHIT

[shonen-key.livejournal.com]

tbh I'm quite surprised that Malaysia is below Japan

[lysblack.livejournal.com]

ugh these comments are so irksome, it makes my skin crawl because I sadly go to school with guys who talk like that without any shame even though they are minorities in our class (they are the only two guys in a class with 25 students) and they get super mad when we get offended by their comments.

and my country is 71 :/

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

People in power do not like have that power questioned so keep telling them

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

sighs heavily

someone needs to alert korean men that gender discrimination in the workplace and conscription are not the same. neither are good, but they are not the same.

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

The comments are totally verifying the article but clearly they don't realize that

America...top 20 isn't good enough...I know we're trying but we don't even have maternity leave. Get it together

[annhh.livejournal.com]

Representing Finland here, it's still not good enough so I can't imagine the situation in countries below. It's really hard to keep on fighting in this world. Shocking to see SK so down, blooming country and all.

I'm gonna say MANY men (saying just men means that ALL men jfc this world and that's what's important, men and if all men or not) who have not experienced or noticed the wrong doings don't want to understand and seek anything that tries to prove feminism is made up. Yes bring up military but don't think that's comparable to women trying 5 times as hard in this world to be taken the same value as men and living life as a fucking survival program after earth blew up - not for just 2 years of their lives. not that I want to sound bitter *is bitter*

[love-keiko.livejournal.com]

this is SO heartbreaking.

[age-ofconsent.livejournal.com]

comments are so gross

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

bwaha hungary, equality in bad treatment.
no, but seriously, workers in general have it real rough in hungary compared to the eu average, so maybe women don't have it bad compared to men, but both of them are treated poorly in school or at work.
that being said, i still don't get how hungary scored so high on that list, and it's a bit scary. is gender equality so bad everywhere? constant sexual harrasment or not getting hired cause you're going away on maternity leave for 3 years each child?
what else... if the list is real, i attribute a lot of help to the language. there is no he/she (bs) in hungarian. there is not as much importance to gender as in indo-european languages.
no, this list can't be right i love hungary, really <3

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

They talked about this topic on abnormal summit. It was disappointing at least. They need female guests for this kind of issues.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

Whenever they talk about women's issues on AS I cringe. Like when they were talking about those trains for women only.

[kaninasan.livejournal.com]

Omona where does your country rank?

We're #1.

Shit still sucks for women here though. Maybe less than in other countries but we're nowhere near reaching true equality.

[elimoum.livejournal.com]

We're #2!

I don't think I should complain, seeing the low scores lower on the list.

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

the data for poland on woman and work index seems off :/

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

how so?

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

80. Damnit Mexico.
:(

[extraenchanted.livejournal.com]

wtf reverse discrimination? so disgusted by those netizen comments.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

My country is #1 and there still exists a definite glass ceiling, especially in private sector.

[steelsigns.livejournal.com]

FUCK THOSE NETIZENS

Was there not one decent comment on there

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

Those comments are so fucking stupid, God. I suppose that because I live in the Netherlands my situation is quite comfortable as a woman, but even here there are people that think like that. Luckily, it's not publicly correct to utter such sentiments. Sometimes I wish I was born as a man just because it's so tiring to be a woman in a lot of areas since you feel like you have to work twice as hard only to be taken seriously.

[bubblyshades.livejournal.com]

what the FUCK at those comments - the sheer ignorance of male privilege is blindingly infuriating

[jessi-cola.livejournal.com]

UK 26 and it doesn't surprise me at all.

[sebsob.livejournal.com]

Same. It's like when that UN Investigator visited the UK last year and stated that UK was a sexist boys' club and all the Heads of Government were like 'nah-ah we're England.' Pretty much sums up why we are #26 - instead of acting upon an opportunity to make a change for the better, they ignored a specialist in her field and actively tried to hamper any valuable insights she might have been able to make and chose instead to stick their heads up their asses.