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Korean Women's Problems from Conventions
In Korea, the participation of women is limited professionally
and economically because of gender discrimination. Currently, women's
professional position in Korea is still low due to being prevented from
social convention. According to a survey of the UN, the ranking of Korea
about the index of women's right, which is calculated by the number of
female ministry, managerial official, professor, lawmaker, engineer and
the real income per a woman, is 78th among 102 nations. Furthermore, Korea
is in the lowest ranked position among the 48 developed countries. Actually
comparing with other nations, until recently the managerial level women
officials are 3.2 percent of all in Korea, but that is 19.5% in the United
States in 1996, 19% in Britain in 1997, and 16.1% in Germany in 1994.
That is, the survey implies that the level of women's participation in
Korean society is much lower than other developed countries qualitatively.
In addition to that low professional position, in the aspect of economic,
women are also treated inequally. According to the National Statistical
Office (NSO), women's participation rate in economic activity, which had
increased since the industrialization of the 1960s, began to decrease
as the Korean economy was managed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In the case of men, the rate increased from 75.6 percent in 1997 to 75.9
percent in 1998, whereas in the case of women, it decreased from 49.5
percent to 48.0 percent. So the researcher said that many companies would
have pressed women to resign or have fired them by sexually discriminative
standards. In addition, comparing with men, women's low wage is another
reason causing their low participation as a career women. According to
the data from the Korea National Statistical Office, the women's average
wage is about 2/3 of that of men in 1998. In concrete terms, the correct
figure of men's wage is 1,274,784 while women's is 804,343. Consequently,
Korea women still have problems in the aspect of not only degree of participation
but also quality of that. Another essential problem for Korean women lies in
one convention of Korean society which brings about an imbalanced gender
ratio. The problem of the imbalanced gender ratio is originally caused
by the convention of preferring a son to a daughter1. The census taken
by the National Statistical Office shows that this problem is very serious.
In 1998, for every 100 female infants, there were 110.2 male infants born.
(The human being's average gender ratio in natural state is 100:105 or
106.) And the ratio goes from bad to worse as we progress from first-
to second- and to third-born. Specifically, in the case of the first born,
the gender ratio is about 100:105 because family members receive relatively
less pressure for a male birth. But, the ratio for second- and third-born
increases to 100: 108 and then to 100: 146 as the pressure for male birth
increases. This imbalanced gender ratio often results from illegal abortions.
Parents under this pressure for a male birth often resort to illegal abortion
of the female fetus. According to report of the Graduate School of Public
Health of the Seoul National University, more than 14% of all pregnant
women use amniocentesis to determine a fetus' gender despite the fact
that the test is illegal in Korea. And most of them who come to know that
their unborn child is a female have an artificial abortion illegally.
Currently, Korean society is beginning to feel the consequences. This
year, for example, according to a social report in the March's Dongailbo,
a leading Korean daily newspaper, one male student per five in the elementary
schools of Ulsan City cannot have a female classmate to sit with because
of the lack of female students. As for the seriousness of the problem
of the imbalanced gender ratio, this problem will become one of the key
issues in solving the women's problem in Korean society in the 21st century.
In addition to the low participation rate of women
and the imbalanced gender ratio, sexual-discriminational conventions cause
sexual violence. Korean women are threatened with sexual violence, whereas
men benefit from the conventions. According to the survey of the Korea
sexual violence consultation office, 97% of the victims are women. Most
of these instances of sexual violence happen in groups in which women
are included, such as family and work place. In the family, Korean women
suffer from their husbands' sexual abuse mainly forced sexual intercourse.
According to the survey of the Korea Criminal Case Consultation, 67% of
wives have had sexual intercourse by husbands' enforcements and 31% of
the enforcements are physical violence. The work place is another place
where sexual violence happens. Many Korean females suffer from sexual
violence by their male colleagues or supervisors. According to the survey
of the Korean Women's Union, 86% women have experienced sexual harassment.
On the other hand, male assaulters of sexual violence are imposed light
penalty by the conventions. They are punished differently according to
their drinking because of the convention that a drunken man loses ability
to control sexual desire. According to the data of the Korea Criminal
Case Consultation, 54% of drunken assaulters of sexual violence are given
a stay of execution, while only 36% of non-drunken are given it. Furthermore,
the amount of the resistance of a female victim influences the punishment
of assaulters. This is found in the prejudice that it is impossible to
rape if women resist to the end. According to the data of the Korea Criminal
Case Consultation, in the case of strong physical resistance, 68.5% assaulters
are imposed a jail sentence, but when there is no resistance, only 38.9%
are. To sum up, the conventions make not only women victims of sexual
violence but also men be imposed light penalty. Korean women have not yet thrown off the shackles
of sex discrimination conventions. The rate of women's participation in
society is low, the problem of the imbalanced gender ratio remains serious,
and sexual violence is prevalent. It seems as if Korean women still live
in the Chosun dynasty even if the dynasty already collapsed about 90 years
ago.
1 Most Koreans prefer sons to daughters because the former, the male in Korea, are regarded to have right to preserve the family name and to succeed family by holding a memorial ceremony "Jesa" to pray for the repose of ancestors. |