Male Chauvinism: Alive and Well in Korea

Kim Yu-gon, Lee Kyo'ng-ryun, Song Se-hun

"Be careful what you say to women even at home. You might get sued," males used to say when they first saw that a male was accused of sexual harassment in his workplace. And some males thought it's just because the accused had been impotent to deal against females. "I can't understand how a man can be accused by a women. It shames us all." These male-centered attitudes toward women show that males didn't recognize how chauvinistic they were. This situation, however, doesn't get better and there are still some problems: gender imbalance, sexual harassment and women's unemployment show the pervasiveness of male chauvinism.

The rate of gender imbalance in Korea is increasing for the main reason that preference for sons. According to a recent government population survey in 1998, For every 100 girls, there were 133.4 boys in 1995, and now there are 112.7 boys per 100 girls in 2000. Even though this rate is getting down across the board, the imbalance of males to females' rate isn't expected to reduce that much. Comparing with the more developed countries, "it certainly is not normal and stable status," the survey says. The reason for such imbalance, preference for sons is causing this situation. A lot of married couples in Korea prefer to have male infants rather than female infants because they believe females are an unnecessary expense. Especially in such "conservative regions" as Andong, Daegu and Kyongbuk, preference for sons is more "deeply rooted," according to Yi Jeng-seun, chairwoman of Deagu Women's Association. She points out that three presidents came from the region during the past 30 years, which made people in the region believe money and fame have something to do with sons. And the Confucian male-centered family system (Hoju) stems from value of preference for sons. Under the family system, Yi Jeng-seun says, people think that their family will be in ruins unless they have a son because only sons have the right of succession of their family. And women suffer from the Hoju because they must enter their name in her husband's family register after their marriage by law. For example, the 1998 interview with Lim Soo-young in Korea Herald shows how many women are under stress with the Hoju. "My mother and father did everything to make me what I am today," she says, "yet the law forced me to deny that they were my parents. I felt as if I was betraying them." Considering that the gender imbalance is caused by the value of preference for sons, such imbalance shows just how pervasive the male chauvinism is in Korea.

Confucian values not only cause gender imbalance, but also men's lack of concern and women's passivity towards sexual harassment at work and at home. In the workplace, according to a survey held in 1998 by Women's Link, a women's rights organization based in Seoul, 44.5% of female employees have experienced physical sexual harassment by male colleagues or superiors. The reasons why this phenomena breaks out are because men have lack of concern and women show passivity towards sexual harassment. In most companies, men ignore sexual harassment. At Kumho, for example, the Korean conglomerate that has had sexual harassment rules in its companies since 1995, there exists a lack of awareness about this rule. Male workers just deny by saying "We know we've had these rules in our company for over 3 years, but in our opinion, we don't need the rule. That kind of thing just doesn't happen at our company." An example of men's failure to face the truth is one person who writes to PC Network: "What in the world is considered a part of the body deemed offensive to look at? If we look at women's faces, they get angry. If we look at their breasts or their buttocks, we get in trouble. If we look at their legs, we're considered perverts. Where in the world can we look at them? Should we be resign ourselves just looking at their backs?" A survey held by Hyundai Research Institute on government employees showed over 80 percent of female employees felt their managers discriminated against them, while 56 percent said they had been verbally abused and 28 percent sexually were harassed by male coworkers. On the contrary, less than four percent of the male respondents said there was any kind of discrimination at the workplace; more than 80 percent said they have never, either verbally or physically, sexually harassed female coworkers. Not only do men have lack of concern but also women show passivity towards sexual harassment. A survey held in 1999 by Lee Moo Kyoung on working women showed that 35.7% of women just keep quiet and only 28.6% of women sue when they are sexually harassed. The most common situation is that a working woman is sexually harassed by her superior, but she is still kept from speaking out for fear of facing disadvantages. A ray of hope: In the meanwhile, women suffering from domestic violence, are becoming rather active in reporting their husbands' violence. Seoul Women's Hot Line shows figures that the number of domestic violence counseling cases was 2195 in 1996, 1701 in 1997, 2069 in 1998 and 2288 in 1999. A KSVIC(Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center) official says that in order to eradicate the problem, women shouldn't hesitate to speak out from a sense of shame, while, men have to take the problem seriously, realizing that their own partners or sisters could be victims.

The last pervasiveness of male chauvinism is about the women's unemployment. Some companies are reducing hiring female applicants. Samsung, for instance, reduced the number of female recruitments by 5% compared to 10% last year; in contrast to increase hiring male applicants by 5% for the same period. Especially, the shortage of job opportunities have become more serious after IMF crisis. In the crisis, females were first objects of laying off, but the rate of female reemployment was just 50% of the rate of men after the crisis. Through an UN' s survey, we can figure out that Korean females' rights were decreased in the period. Korea ranked 73rd in 1997 and 83rd in 1998, falling far behind most Asian countries, in the gender empowerment index (GEM), an index used by the U. N. Development Program to measure the degree of women's participation in decision-making positions in professional, economic and political domains in world countries. Besides the shortage of opportunity, women also face discrimination in the process of recruitment. In a survey held in 1997, 53% of respondents answered "yes" when asked whether they had experienced the discrimination in the process of recruitment. According to a survey conducted by the National Statistical Office in 1998, three quarters of females (75.6%) answered "yes" in the question about whether they were suffering from the sex discrimination in the process of recruitment. Whether or not a woman at hired too often depends on her appearance. Actually, job special magazine "Recruit" reported that according to a questionnaire, 402 recruiters (71.4%) answered that appearance was important criteria in choosing female applicants. These statistics represent that they still regard women as flowers in the office and do not consider other abilities. If the situation of Korean women's suffering from the lack of opportunities and the sex discrimination continues, Korea will be filled with housewives and highly-educated and unemployed women.

As time goes by, the following problems are getting more serious: the imbalanced gender rate, frequent sexual harassment in the workplace and the high rate of women's unemployment. Reasons for these problems, there are several reasons but basically all the problems come from all-pervasive male chauvinism. Considering that all the above show just how pervasive male chauvinism is, the situation against women wouldn't be changed if such male chauvinism exist.