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| Pushing for More Political Participation |
"The dearth of women in local autonomous governments" is hardly an exaggeration.
The last local elections held on June 4 1998 produced a total
of 4,180 local legislators, of which only 97, or a paltry 2.3%, were women. This
is a mere 0.1% increase from the 1995 elections, in which women accounted for
2.2% of the local assemblies.
Women take up 5.9% (41) of the total number of lawmakers in the cosmopolitan cities, and only 2.3% (14) of those in the districts. There is not even one woman lawmaker in North Chungcheong province. Women are even rarer at the grassroots level, accounting for only 1.6% (56) of the total. None of the heads of local governments were women until the by-elections in 1999 produced one woman head of local government.
Considering the growing number of women party members and women voters, women are definitely under-represented at the local level.
Local election campaigns do not require as much money or manpower as general election campaigns, which should give women a relative advantage. But reality shows otherwise.
For women to run for local elections, they have to be nominated by their parties. But women usually lose out to men in the bid for party nominations. Even at the grassroots level, where party nominations are not mandatory, parties still make unofficial nominations and back only their nominees, making it difficult for an independent woman candidate to make it on her own.
The Political Party Act was revised last year to allocate 30% of National and Local Assembly candidacies to women, but only the New Millennium Democratic Party honored this in the last General Elections. With neither sanctions nor incentives, it is doubtful that political parties will obey rules in next year's local elections.
Cho Hyun Oak, representative of the Democratic Alliance for Women's Political Empowerment says, "Local assemblies are in charge of the everyday lives of residents, making it possible for Korean politics to change from a centralized power struggle to democratic politics." She also called for greater representation for women at the local level, saying that the ratio of women should reach at least 50%.
Women groups predict that the 2002 local elections will open a new chapter in women's politics. They are determined to show women's power as never before.
Lee Chun Ho, president of the Korea Women Voters' Federation says, "When it comes to local politics, women are more knowledgeable than men, with men frequently asking their wives which candidate they should vote for. Women candidates have a good chance of winning once they are in the race." Member groups of the Federation have been conducting educational programs to enhance the capacity of would-be woman candidates.
The Federation also plans to demand that each party allocate 50% of its local election nominations and 30% of its constituency candidacies to women. The Federation's goal is to put 1,000 woman candidates in the race with the blessing of women groups and political parties.
There are still numerous hurdles to cross if women are to make marked progress in the 2002 local elections. The first hurdle would be getting parties to promise to abide by allocation rules and getting them to keep that promise.
reported
by Lee Kim Jung-hee jhlee@womennews.co.kr
| Monthly Leaves the Basis of Maternity Protection |
The Minister of Labor and the Tripartite Committee of Labor, Management and Government decided on May 30 to discuss the women workers' monthly leave in connection with the women-related labor laws currently being reviewed at the National Assembly. The decision has prompted backlash from women's groups.
The KWAU, Womenlink Korea, Korea Union of Women Workers and the Korea Women's Trade Unions issued a statement, through which they declared, "We strongly oppose the government's attempt to undermine women workers' health rights by doing away with monthly leaves on the pretext of improving working conditions."
The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions also condemned the move to abolish women's monthly leaves, saying that it is "an anachronistic move in the light of the current debate to reduce working hours." The Confederation also says that "lifting regulations prohibiting overtime, night shifts and holiday duties for women in the process of formulating maternity protection laws will set back working conditions for not only women but the entire workforce."
This repeated attempt to abolish monthly leaves is masterminded by the management, which has been pushing for the abolishment of the system of paid monthly leave for women since 1997, claiming that no other country in the world has such a system.
Kim Ellim, researcher with the Korea Institute for Women's Development, concedes that "Korea, Japan, and Indonesia have the monthly leave system, of which only Korea makes it a paid leave system." But Korea lacks the working environment that guarantees labor rights for women such as equal employment, equal pay, maternity protection, recognition of family commitments and protection against sexual harassment at work. Women in other countries enjoy these rights, so according to Kim, saying that monthly leaves should be abolished just because other countries do not have such a system does not hold water.
In other words, Korea should fall in line with the global trend of strengthening maternity protection through the prohibition of night shifts for women and the extension of maternity and childcare leaves. There is time enough to enter monthly leaves into the debate after Korean society has taken over some of the maternity burden from women.
Women workers intend to counter the government and management's move to abolish monthly leaves and worsen women's working conditions in connection with their on-going struggle to legislate Maternity Protection Laws.
reported
by Choi Lee Boo-ja, bjchoi@womennews.co.kr
| Bittersweet Encounter of Women Unionists and Policewomen |
Afternoon of June 1, the National Assembly
building. A face-off between women unionists and policewomen. The former
are members of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, demanding the
passage of the Maternity Protection Bill at the National Assembly. And the
latter are the front-liners of the so-called "Operation Smile"
launched by the police aimed at inducing peaceful demonstrations. The
irony is that the policewomen, languishing from night shifts and weekend
duties, are the very people who desperately need Maternity Protection
Laws. There is rising criticism against the police for using unarmed
policewomen as its shield in suppressing demonstrations.
Photograph
by Min Won-ki
minwk@womennews.co.kr
reported by
Cho Lee Yeu-wool
, cognate@womennews.co.kr
| Revival of the Military Nurse Officers Academy |
The Korean government and ruling party opened the "Joint Conference of the Ministries of National Defense and Gender Equality" on May 31, and decided to reverse the previous military reform policy to close down the Military Nurse Officers Academy next year.
The Democratic Party spokesperson explained the decision, saying, "The economy has improved compared to three years ago, and there is a shortage of nurses in the private sector, making outsourcing difficult. Also, we felt that we should not undermine the opportunities for women to benefit from human resource development."
The previous decision to close down this Academy was lambasted by the Academy's alumni, the Nurse's Association and women groups, who called the decision "a foolish move that fails to recognize the central role of the Academy in the development of medical welfare in the military." Critics also labeled the move "gender discrimination in education," and accused the military of "selfishly making its weakest section the scapegoat of military reform."
The campaign to save the Academy has amassed the support of the Academy alumni and the Korean public. Credit for this goes to the "Emergency Committee for the Continuation of the Military Nurse Officers Academy." The Committee first launched its activities through the website (www.geocities.com/youngsinkim)
that Kim Young Shin, a 16th class graduate of the Academy, received as a present from her husband Lee Sang Won when he heard that his wife's alma mater was in danger of extinction. The Committee made use of this site to launch an all-out, 5-month campaign for the survival of the Academy, which included on-line publicity activities and an on-line signature-collecting drive.Kim
Eun Ju, 13th class graduate and head of the Committee, says that she realized that only women can help themselves. The Academy was saved from extinction by the concerted efforts of not only the Academy Alumni and Nurse's Association but also congresswomen, the Ministry of Gender Equality, the KWAU, and the women's committee of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Association.The Committee is now convinced of the "clout of the Ministry of Gender Equality," which played a decisive role in getting the Ministry of National Defense notorious for being impervious to criticism to reverse its decision the close down the Academy. During the Joint Conference, Minister of Gender Equality Han Myung
Sook asserted very strongly that "the government must not destroy the chance for financially troubled women to receive national assistance in joining the workforce."The Academy graduates, who became a more close-knit Alumni through the campaign, has shifted to high gear, saying, "Now that we've saved it, let's beef it up!" The Committee has decided to donate the funds left from its on-line campaign to the Academy's development fund. The graduates are also planning to publish a book on the history of their alma mater and its close brush with death.
reported by
Cho Lee Yeu-wool
, cognate@womennews.co.kr
| 10th Anniversary of the Death of Poet Go Jeong Hee - The Poet through the Writings of Na Hee Duk |
"The problem that enthralls me is the cultural crisis and intellectual roots of our times. I do not distinguish ideal from reality in my mind, and cannot separate the political reality from the artistic spirit. Life and ideas are two sides of the same coin. 'Reality' is the lens I use to search for dreams. And the search goes on"
As Poet Go Jeong Hee reveals
through the footnote to her collection of poems entitled <Tearflower>,
reality was the target of her relentless, poetic pursuit. That is why her
poetry portrays the irregularities of reality and the consequent suffering
of the people, and the pains of womanhood under the patriarchal system.
Underpinning her poetry is her strong determination to overcome the unfair
reality she writes about.
Poet Na Hee Duk recently published an article entitled 'The Hand that Cuts the Cloth of our Times' in the summer edition of Creation and Criticism. The article is about the philosophy of the late poet Go. In it, Na "pays tribute to the footprints of a spirit that withstood the winds of the 80s," and says, "Poet Go deserves critical acclaim for breaking away from the narrow framework of lyrical poetry to pursue the possibilities of new forms, and for setting free political and sexual taboos that the negative reality imposed on poetic expression."
Go started out from a Christian point of view, moved to infuse poetry into the people's struggle, and finally broadened her poetic realm to include the world of feminism. Na summarized the poet's world into three themes Christianity, People, and Women.
According to Na, the late poet began to embrace feminist themes with her work 'Green Grass on That Grave' (1989). Unlike her initial works, which had taken a romantic approach to femininity, her poems from that time on portrayed mothers the prototype of femininity as the representative of suffering women and the main player of history. She fused the misfortune of national division and the history of women, and her intellectual labor bore fruits such as 'Fourth Story Repose of Souls' and 'As for the Origin of Humans.'
Go revealed her deep perception of feminist ideas and ventured into a variety of poetic methods through a later work entitled 'Women's Liberation Inauguration.' She broadened the horizon of feminist poetry by sending letters to and chatting with historical women such as Sin Sa Im Dang and Hwang Jin Ee.
For a long time, Go agonized over harmonizing people and women, practice and theory, literature and activism. Later, she traveled to the Philippines and Thailand to meet liberated and progressive women, and came to realize the patriarchal and rigid mentality of the people's movement. This led her to ponder ways to combine the feminist movement with the democratic movement and get the former to transform the climate of the latter. Amidst her muses, she also explored a new paradigm of the feminist movement.
The new paradigm she hit upon was 'Feminist Realism and the Revolution of Literary Style.' But just as she was about to launch into this new theme, her short life of 43 years came to an end in Baemsa Valley of Mt. Jiri.
Na writes, "Her posthumous work reveals a poet who knew how to slow down and look back. It is lamentable that right when she was about to delve deeper into her new creative niche, she suddenly left us"
reported
by Ji Eun-ju,
ippen@womennews.co.kr
Articles condensed by Lee Jae-jin
, translated by Cho Eung-joo.
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