The Way Gender Equality is Represented in Korean Society

The term of gender equality is familiar to many people. Educated in schools, work, and among movements, ‘gender equality’ is a frequently used word. Korea and other countries had set different responsibilities for men and women starting from the far past. This culture had caused prejudice to root inside one’s mind to set up expectations for different genders. So the main ponit for this argumentative essay about gender equality is to give a clear definition of the term and what movements it has caused to happened. 

Another term called ‘gender roles’ is an expectation set up for women and men. Though diluted over time and changes are happening nationwide, a common view of women is a person who mostly does household work and raises children, while men is viewed as a hard worker who has the responsibility of financially supporting their family. Even though there are many people that break this ‘stereotypical’ image, prejudice can still be found among people. Korea is still far away from a gender-equal society, yet this ongoing progress will change society over time.

While gender equality actually means that people have access to rights without taking their gender into consideration, the Korean culture that minimized the roles of women in society a long time ago might trigger the thought that gender equality is just a simple women’s rights movement. While women’s right is associated with gender equality, the term itself holds the break of gender identity. Similarly, gender equality can be seen as a different definition in different countries by its varying cultural systems.

Recently a gender equality movement emerged in South Korea. Started from New York City, a HeForShe movement started on September 20, 2014. A heforshe korean headquarters had uploaded ‘real change HeForShe’ videos on youtube channels containing the stories of people who started to get interested in gender equality by taking the movement into their action. The videos handled the issue of inspiring and implementing maternityparental leave services in companies, not blaming women (victims) for sexual harassment, and equal household work destributation.

Originally started by UN Women to trigger men's participation in gender equality issues in 2014, the HeForShe Korean movement headquarters were established in 2015. The movement’s broad purpose, improving gender equality globally, seemed to fit well into Korea’s aim of gender equality. The culture of women doing household work and childcare as well as the problem of sexual harassment in South Korea gave a major influence into triggering the establishment of the center.

Last but not the least, at its launch, UN Women had set a goal to mobilize the first 100,000 men in the campaign. Not only has the goal been reached in three days, it continues to grow. 4 years after it was founded, it has gained approximately 1.3 billion commitments. From the United States alone about 141,000 commitments have been made, most from men. The HeToShe movement is continuing to grow and establish in countries, and its goal of reaching gender equality globally does not seem so far-fetched.