Realization of South Korea’s Gender Inequality

Realization of South Korea’s Gender Inequality

When I was 15, I was a normal female student in Korean middle school. The only special thing about me that was different from others was that I went to a girl’s middle school in south Korea. As I was separated from all males in South Korean society for 3 middle school years, I wasn’t able to sense the level of gender inequality in south Korean society. However, when I stepped out from the protection of the girl’s middle school and started to experience society, the gender inequality hit me directly. Some say South Korea is one of the nations where gender equality is being achieved, and the importance of gender equality is well emphasized. However, the traditional gender roles and some policies in South Korea are still contribution to low South Korean women’s right.
Traditionally, the gender role of South Korean women was inferior to the men’s. As most of the women in Korean history were house wives, supporting their husband and sons in any consequences. “Sacrifice” was the key word that would define women in the past. However, as the time passed, people started to notice the injustice of traditional gender roles, and started to fight against it. However, despite all the effort that women have put into transcending the traditional gender role, we are still imprisoned by it. As I graduated from girl’s middle school, my parents decided to send me abroad to study. However, many of the people around me said “why would you want to send a girl to China and waste money?” This sort of injustice created by traditional gender roles is still dominating the society. The “Nth room” case occupied all headlines of news and the internet for a while in 2020. The Nth room case is a digital sexual crime where millions of people shared sexual photos of people mostly women without his or her permission in the Telegram group chat called Nth room. As the crime involved millions of men and women around us, it was a shock for everyone. Everyone feared that the “Nth room” criminal could be around in any time during our daily life. Personally, I was in shock when I found out that a person close to me was a victim of the crime. I found out that a person close to me was a victim of this crime. Seeing her suffer from the trauma, I was angered toward the millions of criminals and expected the government to put strong adjustment into the crime. However, the government was effortless about the situation. As the punishment was weak, people were no longer afraid to create another Nth room and share sexual photos with others. I understood that millions of people in the nth room can’t all be punished at the same time. However, seeing them creating infinite number of Nth rooms on the internet does not seem appropriate.
I want to live in a society where I would not face any obstacle or limitation simply because I am a female. When I became an adult, I want to share the same opportunity as men. Moreover, when I am faced with any injustice instance in the society becomes into a victim, I want to be protected with all legal and rights. The government at should equally treat genders and protect their human rights at any cause. IF we do succeed to make this change, we will be able to receive more opportunities.

A. Kwen