gender inequality
My Life Isn't Your Porn: Why South Korean Women Protest
You might have heard the stories — of cameras that look like lighters, flashes of light inside nooks and crannies at a public restroom, subway upskirting — but they might have sounded like stories of other people. On June 9, some 22,000 women gathered in South Korea to say
Sexist Books for Children
These books are for children, as young as three. How do they portray women and men in the workplace? Pretty conservatively. We visited Kyobo Bookstore in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, the biggest bookstore in the country. The portrayals of women in its top-selling “learning books” for children were disappointing,
Hollywood Has Harvey Weinstein. South Korea Faces Its Own Demons.
Hollywood is still reeling after the New York Times found that Harvey Weinstein, one of the industry’s most powerful figures, had sexually harassed and assaulted actresses for decades. Then there is South Korea, where a similar debate is unfolding over how its own film industry is treating women. Back
S. Korea Has a Female Foreign Minister. But "Women Are Still Inferior."
Segye Ilbo reporter Kim Ye-jin was having dinner on Sep. 14 with fellow journalists covering the foreign ministry. A high-ranking ministry official was also present. This wasn’t unusual; it’s typical for journalists reporting on government ministries to dine with officials. But unusually, Kim wrote about the
More Than Fat
In one comedy sketch, an overweight woman wearing sparkling jewelry and a comely black dress scarfs down food. A man acting as her manager yells, “Min-kyoung, wake up! How many times have I told you to lose that weight? How can you call yourself a woman and not make the
Glass Zoo: Tales of Veteran Women Journalists
Recently, the Korea Exposé team was looking at presidential candidates’ lists of pledges. “Woman” was the name given to one of the categories. A colleague asked me, “How do you feel about being a policy category?” I didn’t really know what
"A Day Without Women" on the Streets of South Korea
Today was International Women’s Day, and South Korean women took this celebration to another level. Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA) held a “Day Without Women” march in downtown Seoul and other cities nationwide, calling out for women to fight against the gender wage gap.
Safety Not Guaranteed: A Woman's Experience on The Seoul Subway
Editor’s Note: Last week, we published an open letter from a university professor with her permission. In it, she detailed her experience of being sexually harassed as a “white female foreigner” in a public space. The ensuing debates from our readers were contentious, often empathetic, and