The trade unionist Kim Jin-suk is fighting for equality for women in South Korea – they are particularly suffering in the country from the corona pandemic.
- Kim Jin-suk is fighting in South Korea against the Inequality from Women.
- The East Asian state is regarded as a model country in the Corona-Pandemic, nevertheless there are numerous losers: inside.
- Women in particular are affected by the effects.
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Seoul – When Kim Jin-suk finally arrived at the Blue House in February, she would have hoped for a thorough conversation, or at least a handshake. She had marched for more than 30 days, 400 kilometers from the industrial city of Busan in the south to the capital Seoul. But when the 61-year-old was in front of the president’s official residence South Korea stood, it was just ignored. “I’ve become quite skeptical about Moon Jae-in,” says Kim Jin-suk. “Moon claimed he was the President of Jobs. It’s probably not him. “
The union’s protest march nevertheless caused quite a stir in the East Asian country. After all, Kim Jin-suk isn’t just anyone. She is one of the icons South Korea in the fight for equal rights. As in the legendary film Forrest Gump, the woman was joined by hundreds on her way. In the current crisis, they want their dignity back. “In Korea everything is once again being passed on to the workers,” Kim complains. “And especially the female ones!”
There are also losers in the corona model country South Korea: inside the pandemic
Such conflicts these days South Korea to hear it may come as a surprise at first. Since the beginning of 2020 the Corona-Pandemie its global course, hardly any other country has impressed the world as much as this one. Thanks to quick, decisive action – from disinfecting public spaces to strict tracking of the chains of infection using smartphones to the rapid production of rapid tests – South Korea has been relatively little affected by the pandemic to this day. The country has only around 90,000 infections and 1,600 deaths. Even the economy contracted only slightly by 1.1 percent in 2020.
But also in South Korea there are losers: inside in the Corona-Pandemie. And these are, as the union leader Kim says, above all the already vulnerable groups. Kim’s personal case brings back memories that this is actually nothing new. “I was fired from the Hanjin industrial group in 1986 as a young woman after I was unionized,” she says. Until today would Women systematically disadvantaged and fired as soon as they become uncomfortable.
Corona pandemic in South Korea: women affected by job losses
In fact, the activist isn’t the only one saying something like that. “Covid-19 has South Korea’s gender inequality even more, ”said Troy Stangarone, director of the Korea Economic Institute of America, in an essay at the end of February. Because during Women even before the Corona-Pandemie were precariously employed and lived in income poverty around twice as often as men, the situation has now worsened. On the one hand, women are increasingly working in those industries that are affected by overload due to the pandemic. Hardly a quarter of doctors are women, but around 94 percent of the other workers in the health sector are women.
On the other hand, female workers are now to a particular extent of Corona job losses affected. “Women make up the majority of the workforce in the education, transport, hotel, restaurant and catering industries, ”reports Stangarone. There have been significantly reduced jobs. And as if that weren’t enough: women with life partners also do most of the housework at home. Because this is also considered a woman’s business. A typical explanation for this is that men, who are more likely to be promoted by the company, have to stay longer in the office on average.
Even in an international comparison, the disadvantage of Women in South Korea on. In the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, which the Gender equality When comparing labor market, education, politics and health, the country ranks 108th out of 153. Women in South Korea today are just as well educated as men and also have the same access to health services. The genders are particularly unequal when it comes to representation in politics and equality in economic life. Companies often assume that a woman will leave the job anyway due to pregnancy. So you invest less in their training.
Corona inequalities are even reflected in the suicide rate in South Korea
And in this one Corona-Pandemie show up Inequalities even in the suicide rate. Statistics show so far that men take their own life roughly twice as often. Women try it more often. And they seem to be catching up. In the first half of 2020, when the pandemic caused deep cuts in everyday life, the number of successful suicides suddenly skyrocketed. For women as a whole, this value rose by seven percent, and at the age of 20 and 29, by as much as 40 percent. Kim Jin-suk and Troy Stangarone see important reasons for the socio-economic disadvantage.
Kim Jin-suk, 61, has been fighting for the rights of women workers in South Korea for many years.
© KCTU
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It is a misalignment that should actually have been straightened out long ago. Since yourself South Korea transformed from an agricultural country into an industrialized nation in the post-war decades due to rapid economic growth, is also used here for equality fought. And belonged from the start Women to the driving forces. In addition to Kim Jin-suk, trade unionist Kim So-yeon is one of the role models who worked for the electronics company Kiryung. When she organized protests for years after the turn of the millennium in order to get the precarious employees into regular jobs, she too was fired. The case made big headlines, partly because it led to a hunger strike.
South Korea’s president cannot keep his promises
When the left-wing liberal Moon Jae-in became president four years ago South Korea was elected, he promised to drive down the high proportion of precarious jobs. All in all, every fourth job today is temporary – a good twice as often as the average in the industrialized countries. Of these, in turn, are Women affected twice as often. But Moon’s attempt to remedy this problem through publicly funded agencies was only partially successful.
“Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to talk to me,” says Kim Jin-suk. In any case, it’s not because the two don’t know each other. As a lawyer, Moon Jae-in once represented the interests of trade unionists who work closely with Kim. (Felix Lill)
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