1.3 Main problems on the agenda of the South Korean feminist organization

After the brief analysis of the main Organizations` activity we can figure out some problems which are the main for the feminist agenda is South Korea. These problems are not taken into a consideration among the official aims of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In this part I will analyze the main problems in social aspects.

The main aspect of the feminist organizations` attention is violence. That includes physical, sexual and psychological abuse. I want to analyze some statistical data about physical and sexual violence in South Korea.

The main failure in concretizing forms of violence against women within rape in general and violence against wives in particular. The rape was often defined as a crime committed by the strangers. Wife beating was more difficult to be designated as a crime as it occurred within a family. The problem roots not in the legislation, but in the cultural approach towards the family institution. Korean feminists decided to rely on the government mechanisms as the reliable legislative force in the solving specified and general problems.

Here is some statistical data of the violence – comparative statistics of males and females. For instance, speaking about spousal violence (among married women and men elder than 19) in 2016, 12.1% women had been victims of spousal violence in the last year: 3.3% experienced physical, 10.5% - psychological, 2.4% and 2.3% - sexual violence. About 18 % of women experienced spousal violence during the first year of marriage, 62.3% of women within the first five years of marriage. 2% of women experienced violence also before the marriage.⁹¹

Statistics for the males is quite different. For instance, 8.6% of polled men could be defined as victims of the spousal violence: 1.6% - physical violence, 7.7% - psychological violence, 0.3% - sexual violence.⁹²

For both men and women, the most common reasons for victimization and perpetration of spousal violence were “differences in personality” and “economic problems”. Here are the consequences of the spousal violence according to the poll: 20% of women and about 6% of men got physical injuries, 43.4% of women and 19% of men experienced psychological traumas. For instance, 45% of women and 17% of men felt intimidation and hostility within the spousal violence.⁹³

One of the major issues for the South Korean feminist discourse is sexual violence. There are lots of difficulties in identification of the sexual crime. According to KWDI, men are responsible for the most committed sex crimes – 99.9% are committed by males. In 2000, sex crimes by perpetrators completely unknown to their victims were high, but recently, sex crimes against victims known to their attackers has been increasing. Therefore, efforts to prevent recidivism are necessary.⁹⁴

If we divide this case into types of crimes, we can see that single-victim cases increased in 2013 – comparing with the beginning of the XX century. Forced incident, the proportion of one-victim cases decreased, while those against multiple victims increased. As for the gender of victims, 98.9% are women in their teens, twenties and thirties.⁹⁵

In order to convert home protection into the victim protection in the case of domestic violence, it is necessary to handle domestic violence cases as any other crimes. The already existing Special Act for the Punishment of Domestic Violence needs a revision – in other words, punishment for the domestic violence should be inevitable and severe.⁹⁶

At present, all the legal processes in the Special Act for the Punishment of Domestic Violence tend to follow the intention of victims. This should be complemented by the procedures to more fully determine their true intention. When violence against a spouse is handled as a home protection or a criminal case, the relationship at the time influences the final sentence. The problem is the sentence should be clearly based on the fact of violence – without taking the fact of relationship in a serious consideration. The most important standards that affect the results of cases are the victim’s intention of whether or not to punish the accused and the victim’s intention to maintain her household.⁹⁷

The other sharp problem for the feminist organizations in South Korea is wider and more general than violence. It is women`s position in family institution – the basic patriarchal structure in the world. According to Song, single women (with or without children) experience oppression in the society. As for single women without children, they are oppressed by relatives and sometimes friends who suppose them to be deviant - without having a family. As for women with children (who are divorced or just escaping abuse and domestic violence) they also have a submissive and dependent position in the society. For instance, they cannot enroll their children in schools without informing their father about the children`s location. The other good example of the patriarchal straits in the South Korean society, is the fact that during the Asian financial crisis women had no right to become candidates for entrepreneur incubator programs without male kin member`s sponsorship.⁹⁸

At first, one will figure out changes in marriage statistics. For instance, in 1990 the average marriage age of women was 24, 8 – and in 2010 it accounted for 28,9 – and in 2014 this age remained. One can notice that women close to 30 are more confident than in the yearly 20-s: they have a career, that could collect a certain amount of money – rather more than a young woman just after the graduation from the university. However, young women still have to rely on their parents. For instance, it is almost impossible to gather about 20,000-50,000 $ for the lump-sum cash (the necessary amount of deposit money given to the owner of the flat) – thus, young women (that sometimes have no stable employment for getting a loan in bank and have no desire to get married just because they should).⁹⁹

Speaking about giving birth to children, one can pay attention to the following statistics. There is an interesting tendency for the last decade: since 2006, the main birth rate was noted among the women in the last twenties – and already in 2011 this group changed to the women in the early thirties. For instance, the number of births in 2009 – 444.8 and this number raised to 469.9 people in 2010. The average number of children ever born for married females was 2.38 persons in 2010, which decreased by 0.05 person from 2.43 persons in 2005.¹⁰⁰ We can notice that women still give birth to children, moreover – number of births is increasing each year. That can be the evidence of two possible facts:

1. Being mother is still important for the women

2. Classical gender roles, especially female once, are still influential in the South Korean Society

The other patriarchal institution is the institution of marriage. For the year the total number of married women accounted for 15,227 thousand people. Speaking about the number of children that were ever born for married females, females who had two children amounted to 6,972 thousand persons, which occupied the largest share of 45.8 percent. Females who had one child amounted to 2,719 thousand persons, which occupied 17.9 percent. Females who had three children amounted to 2,518 thousand persons, which occupied 16.5 percent.¹⁰¹ As one can notice, tendency to have one child is not very big – however, this position is rather popular than more traditional extended family with a big number of children.

Finally, the problem that South Korean women face in the wide context – situation in the labor market. For instance, the female labor force participation in 2013 stood at 50.2 % whereas the male one – at 73.2 %. The highest female participation in the labor market showed the women aged from 25 to 29. Speaking about college graduates, the female force was 24.8% lower than the male one. Moreover, the statistical data shows that the labor participation of females aged from 15 to 54 raised from 58.5% in 2013 to 60.7% in 2015.¹⁰² The dynamics is not very high, but the very fact of its existence is the evidence of a gradual (however, slow) expansion of the female labor force in the market.

The most difficult milestone for a woman is establishing a membership in the organizational culture, trying to work against gender stereotypes about a typical ‘office lady’, that can cope with only preparing coffee and copying documents. Moreover, only women in South Korean companies are still assumed to serve drinks for the superior bosses. More than that, now women are still experiencing discrimination at any benchmark – promotion, making decisions, employment conditions. More than that, the psychological factor in the women`s labor on some high ranks can also play a big role. Fear because of lack of legal security leads to the lack of motivation for hard work and achieving success.¹⁰³