Women fight back as South Korea tries to abolish its Gender Equality Ministry – BBC News

foreign sexism and misogyny here Run Deep but the new president has claimed structural sexism is a thing of the past [Music] when Yuna started her job as a clerk at a major bank she was told to her surprise to make lunch for her team they said this fell to me as the newest female member of staff then I was told to take the towels in the men's bathroom home at night and wash them I said wouldn't it be better for the man to wash the towels in their bathroom but my boss said how can you tell men to wash towels at first I politely said no but my boss got very angry and started to torment me Ena recorded everything and reported her back to the government which last month found it guilty of sexual harassment and discrimination [Music] South Korea has a large agenda pay Gap than any other wealthy nation and its boardrooms and politics are dominated by men but rather than promise to fix this South Korea's new president scrapped gender quotas selecting just three women to serve in his cabinet set out to change politics at just 26 years old she was asked to lead the liberal opposition party but soon encountered sexism foreign [Music] Park was pushed aside after the party performed badly in local elections come an icon for many young women who feel unrepresented in Korea songs foreign [Applause] recent attempts to improve women's lives have angered young men here claim they're now victims of reverse discrimination they want the government to get rid of the gender equality Ministry which supports women and those who've been sexually assaulted the president campaigned on this promise and is now pushing to close it Anna was raped by her professor at college she credits the gender equality Ministry with saving her life foreign hmm statistics cool cool the gender equality Ministry stepped in it found her a place in this shelter and supported her to pursue a prosecution um Anna is now fighting to save the ministry along with more than 800 organizations in South Korea closing it could have a devastating impact on women's lives they say the government says its services will be protected but that it's time to support women and men equally [Applause] how did you feel when you heard that the government wanted to close the ministry okay so let's take um [Music] we are only building up to equality now in South Korea if this ministry disappears what we've built will collapse foreign foreign [Music]

Channel: BBC News

Views: 586,322

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news

Id: CxH2ELUTu_4

Length: 7min 12sec (432 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 15 2022