Women Friendly Seoul

In a male-dominated society, women in South Korea complain they are treated as second-class citizens. Now Seoul’s civic leaders, both in and out of government, seem determined to do something about it – setting an example and a precedent for the rest of the country and possibly the entire region. Thus, Korea’s thriving, cosmopolitan capital is awakening to a reality that most people have long realized, but have done little to combat.

No matter how far Korean women have advanced since the Japanese colonial era in terms of education, income and careers, many of them are increasingly annoyed by the priority given to men in so many ways. Park Hyun-kyung, president of the Seoul Foundation for Women and Family, puts the reality and the solution frankly. “In terms of the urban environment, there is still a lack of respect and consideration for women,” she has written. “Women have always been at the forefront and center of urban collaboration, but society has failed to consider them accordingly.”

That reality, Park earnestly hopes, is changing as the city “focuses on the safety and convenience of women when using urban space in everyday life.”

Nowadays this sprawling metropolis of approximately 10 million people is advertising itself as “women-friendly,” and that’s not a come-on to the millions of men to whom the term might have quite another connotation. In a culture where men dominate offices and women by tradition are relegated to home and family, or bars and brothels, Seoul’s metropolitan government has outlined “visions and challenges for a women-friendly city” with plans for a dozen categories ranging from “women-friendly restroom” to “women-friendly workplace.”

“We have developed a new paradigm for urban policy, a women-friendly policy,” is the bold claim of the city’s deputy mayor, Ra Jin-goo, who happens to be a man, but isn’t letting that detail interfere with his sense of mission. “For the first time, we have introduced women-friendly policies in all areas of design.” Ra, at a forum sponsored by the city that drew several hundred women from foreign countries, said his government, having established “a women-friendly matrix,” now wants “to make certain we do not leave any loophole open.”

For all the fine words and deeds, however, women question how broad the reforms are, and whether Korean society can ever shed the image of a macho culture. Korean women respond with guarded skepticism to the elaborate program enunciated by the metropolitan government, whose mayor, Oh Se-hoon, is hoping women will support him if he runs for president in the next election in 2012. Oh is the author of a grand plan bearing the promising name, “Happy Women, Happy Seoul,” dedicated to investing more than 100 billion won to making life easier for women in search of such amenities as clean restrooms and parking spaces big enough for them to be able to maneuver babies out of cars without fear of other cars running into them.

The question, always, is how much of the program is for show and image, and what will be its real impact on the lives of most women? “Women’s rights are talked about mostly by activists,” says Shin Hei-soo, a professor at Ewha Woman’s University, whose 10,000 students make it the world’s largest all-female institution of higher learning. “Of course, there is the political ambition of Mayor Oh. And there are different perceptions between what men see and what women want.”

In fact, the role of women outside the home has increased immensely over the generations since the Korean War ended in July 1953. Women fill offices and campuses, as they never did a century or even half a century ago, but the figures still suggest pervasive problems. “Women get 64 percent on average of what men earn for the same job,” says Shin, and 300,000 women in this country of 48 million are estimated to work in hostess bars, massage parlors and “barbershops” despite widely publicized police crackdowns on dozens of red-light districts in Seoul and other major centers.

Lee Ji-won, international coordinator at the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, questions whether a law passed three years ago to protect the rights of women is making much difference. “Institutionally we have the relevant law,” she says, “but in our daily life the pattern is not really changed.” She says the law “protects women from sexual violence and discrimination,” but for many women the right to work means they really have two jobs. “We have to work in the labor force,” she adds, “but traditionally we have the same roles as daughters and mothers, cooking and cleaning and taking care of the home.”

No doubt about it, the Seoul metropolitan government is serious about addressing women’s concerns when it comes to every day issues like restrooms culture and parking areas. “Today’s urban environment must improve in order for women, as living beings, to receive satisfaction,” according to Park Hyun-kyung.

That’s by way of introduction to plans for the convenience of women that seem to leave nothing uncovered. “Provide enough numbers and area for practical use of toilet and improve inconvenience to wait longer than necessary,” begins the official English translation. “Avoid odd situations to face each other in front of the bathroom between different gender by placing the entrance in different direction.” The injunctions on restrooms seem to cover just about every contingency, winding up with advice on “remodeling decrepit restroom” and installing “comfortable sanitary equipment.”

Then it’s on to “women-friendly parking area” with plans, among other things, for “women privileged parking lot,” “security and alarm system,” “comfortable underground parking area” and, of course, “women-friendly restroom in parking lots.” The injunctions there appear as clear and definite as those on restrooms. “A parking lot with more than 30 parking spaces should provide women privileged parking zone in an area with easy access to the entrance, stairs and core,” says one requirement. “Womenprivileged parking area has to be recognized easily,” says another. And, at public facilities, “provide the valet service for women drivers….”

Almost invariably, women claim that they rarely see widespread use of the numerous plans drafted to make life easier for women. The “women-friendly” program, they say, exists largely in the imagination of city planners – and in showcase parks and neighborhoods. For Korean women who have grown up overseas, immersion in the culture and society of their parents and grandparents can be a shock regardless of superficial changes.

“When I got here, certain parts of life here were not so friendly,” says Linda Behk, raised and educated through college and graduate school in New York. The problem, she says, goes far beyond the elaborate plans envisioned in guidelines from Seoul City Hall. “People are more self-conscious about how people see them,” she says. “And there is some bias in work. There are certain age limits. Some places feel a little down on women, and women feel self-conscious about them.”

For all such sensitivities, attitudes are shifting. “In my generation, women were always intimidated by aggressive men,” says Won Hyeon-suk, showing a group of foreign women around the Kyongbuk Palace complex on a tour that emphasizes the historic role of women. “Now, my son says he’s intimidated by aggressive females.” As evidence of the change, she notes that 36 percent of those who passed the rigorous Korean bar examination this year were women in comparison with less than one percent when she was in college 30 years ago. She spends extra time on the tour visiting the palace of a king whose wife, Queen Min, died tragically in a vicious 19th-century power struggle. Suspecting her of plotting with Russians, Japanese murdered her in one of the royal palaces in 1895 – a precursor to Japanese defeat of the Russians and takeover of South Korea a decade later.

At Seoul City Hall, Cho Eun-hee, assistant mayor responsible for “women and family policy,” is confident “Korean men are changing.” President Lee Myungbak, a former mayor of Seoul, “gives more meaning to the empowerment of women,” she says. “Old men cannot change their minds, but men under 60 have changed already. Korea is changing rapidly.” The goal is “to make Seoul the happiest place in the world,” says Lee Kong-suk, former president of Sookmyung Women’s University, another major women’s institution here. “If women do not feel happy in the city, the city is not viable.” All such efforts, she assures the foreign women visiting Seoul, “are the key to open the doors for women around the world.”

Inevitably, questions abound. Why did Korea rank 61st out of 93 nations in “gender empowerment” in a survey conducted in 2009 by the United Nations Development Program? And why did President Lee tell an emergency meeting of his economic council that “the most urgent issue on our hands is to create jobs for the heads of households,” a category that includes virtually none of the country’s women? The answer, say many women, is that the president, who rose to become chairman of Hyundai Engineering and Construction before entering politics, unavoidably retains the mindset of the aggressive male in an era of rapid economic growth.

While Korea continues to grow, Seoul’s Metropolis Women International Network, working closely with the metropolitan government, observes that “major global cities are shifting their focus from material growth to culture, art and design and turning themselves from ‘hard city’ into ‘soft city.’” In the course of this “great transformation,” says the network, “women’s creative and sensitive energy is emerging as main driving force behind the development of the city.” Could it be that the gentle feminine tough is toning down the rough outlook of the men at the forefront of Korea’s rise as an economic powerhouse?

Cho Eun-hee at City Hall is positively euphoric about the possibilities. She acknowledges that “most of the local governments in Korea have tended to passively execute the policies” of the central government “rather than actively laying out their own, original plans.” But Seoul’s Women-Friendly project, she believes, stands as a notable exception under the slogan, “Active Gender Mainstreaming in City Policies.” The result, she says, has been “a new paradigm for establishing gender-sensitive city policies on the local government level.” At the heart of this campaign has been “the establishment of gender governance as a primary strategy to enhance women’s participation in the policy-making process of the city.”

Concerns about safety for women tend to dominate “women-friendly” discussions. “Once they get out of the house, women usually face dangers and inconveniences in the city,” says Koh Insuk, director of the metropolitan government’s transportation headquarters. He cites numerous projects to “make the city a safer place for women” including “women-friendly streets, call taxis, public bathrooms and parks, all aimed “at enhancing the quality of women’s everyday life,” each project with a distinctive brand name “based on specific targets.” He even cites “plans to construct an underground road system,” greatly reducing “ground traffic and road demand,” allowing “more space for pedestrians, bike-riders and public transportation on the ground” as part of the effort to “make Seoul a more humanitarian and endowment- friendly city” – and thus more women-friendly too.

If a society is to be truly “womenfriendly,” though, it’s necessary to combat violence against women everywhere from the home to the streets. “Now is the time to effectively put the laws into practice,” says Lee Mik-young, former director of the Korean Sexual Violence Relief Center. “First and foremost,” she says, all governments “should focus their efforts toward making a society where the protection of victims’ rights and the punishment of offenders is common sense.” Violence against women has long been a problem in Korea.

Lee Mik-young believes “a systematic education about human rights and small, everyday practices of gender equality by the people should be part of public and private school curriculums and public campaigns.” The goal, she goes on, is for all to “become conscious of a society where women are respected and guaranteed to live free from the fear of violence.”

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