Minister Lee Jung-ok: "The Proposal to Abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Reflects Public Disappointment... We Will Communicate" (Comprehensive)

Heartbreaking as the Minister of the Main Ministry
Public Disappointment in Response Limitations
"No Answer but to Work Harder"

Minister Lee Jung-ok of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] Minister Lee Jung-ok of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) responded for the first time to the calls for the abolition of the ministry that were raised through a Blue House national petition.

On the 31st, during an online briefing held at the Government Seoul Office, Minister Lee began by saying, "It pains me deeply as the minister in charge that 100,000 people agreed to abolish MOGEF and that this issue has moved on to discussions in the National Assembly."

She said, "Government policies are measures to address all social issues, but while other ministries do not receive petitions calling for their abolition due to insufficient responses to their respective issues, I wondered why MOGEF is subject to such petitions. I think the cause may be the lack of public acceptance or understanding of our projects."

Minister Lee stated that she believes the disappointment toward MOGEF expressed through the petition stems from the fact that despite MOGEF implementing various policies, sexual violence and Me Too victims continue to emerge, and the ministry’s capacity to respond is limited.

She explained, "Typically, basic care policies are handled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare or the Ministry of Education, but we are responsible for visiting care services for dual-income families, filling in the blind spots in care services. We also bear the responsibility of implementing gender mainstreaming policies on global agendas at the global level, which creates a very different understanding of the situation."

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Lee Jeong-ok [Photo by Yonhap News]

Minister Lee emphasized, "I think there is no other answer than to communicate more sincerely and work harder on what we can do."

◆Inevitable decision to recall the 'Nadawoom Children's Books' = Regarding the recently decided recall of some 'Nadawoom Children's Books,' she said, "We tried to build social consensus, but it was practically difficult. If it were our own project, we could have had some value debates, but we had to consider our relationship with partners." She explained, "It was a project started through a tripartite agreement among the company providing the fund, the social organization managing the fund, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family." She added, "The ministry actively participated by recommending experts with various professional expertise in related fields or those who could represent the average Korean public’s perspective, including elementary school teachers and children’s literature experts."

Furthermore, Minister Lee said, "Since it was a corporate social contribution project, we could not disregard the relationship with partner institutions, and we did not want the journey of discovering 'Nadawoom' to become a source of social conflict." She added, "We wanted to build social consensus through dialogue, but one of the related parent groups that our ministry tried to engage with was confirmed as a COVID-19 case, making it practically difficult to seek such consensus." Minister Lee emphasized, "Recalling the books does not undermine the responsibility, representativeness, or sincerity of the judging panel."

Nadawoom Books, Value Debate Complicated by Partner Relations
"Judges’ Sincerity Not Undermined"
Abortion Law Should Consider Women's Decision and Health Rights
Multicultural Education Will Be Strengthened Through Mutual Respect

Regarding the late Mayor Park Won-soon of Seoul’s case, she said, "For power-type elected officials under a system adopting popular sovereignty, regulation is very difficult without public recall or intervention by the Election Commission," but added, "An important improvement we could make within our authority was to strengthen the reporting system and create a structure where reports can be made externally rather than internally within the organization."

She stated that the ministry will actively cooperate with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to allow the 2030 generation to freely raise grievances about power dynamics in the workplace and to closely collaborate on improving related systems. Minister Lee said, "The Seoul Metropolitan Government has accepted consulting for organizational culture improvement and agreed to cooperate," and added, "Since the National Human Rights Commission has accepted a suo motu investigation, we will monitor the situation further and continue to check and confirm additional support measures for victims." She also mentioned that discussions are ongoing with Seoul City regarding conditions that would allow victims to return to work and have a smooth workplace life.

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Lee Jung-ok Photo by Yonhap News

◆Abortion Law Should Consider Women's Health Rights= Regarding the project of the support group for former Japanese military 'comfort women,' she said, "We are continuously double-checking whether the support funds are properly reaching the grandmothers," and added, "The Justice and Memory Foundation’s subsidy project has a budget of 500 million won, with 200 million won allocated for the second half of the year, but it is difficult to make a conclusion on whether to continue execution due to ongoing prosecution investigations."

Minister Lee said, "Regarding the abortion law, it seems that an excessive interpretation of the right to life protection has become customary. I hope that changes will occur to consider women's decision-making rights and health rights."

Regarding the controversy sparked by 'Blackface' related to 'Gwanjjak Sonyeondan' (coffin boys), she emphasized that multicultural understanding education will be conducted more actively. Minister Lee said, "Multiculturalism should not be understood only as immigrant families or just listed superficially. It requires mutual respect and recognition, so we plan to strengthen cultural understanding education accordingly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.