Launch of Yongsan-gu Women-Friendly City Resident Participation Group

On the 12th, held non-face-to-face at Yongsan Art Hall Small Theater Garam... 44 members... evenly distributed from their 20s to 70s... tasked with identifying gender imbalance factors and daily life inconveniences

Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan District, took a commemorative photo at the inauguration ceremony of the Women-Friendly City Resident Participation Group held at the Yongsan District Office Art Hall on the 12th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seongjang Hyun) held the inauguration ceremony for the ‘Women-Friendly City Resident Participation Group’ at 3 p.m. on the 12th at the Garam Small Theater in Yongsan Art Hall.

The event was conducted non-face-to-face using the online video conferencing platform (ZOOM) program to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Two representatives from the resident participation group attended in person and received their appointment certificates directly, while the rest of the participants were sent their appointment certificates and activity guidelines by mail.

This year, the district has made the creation of a women-friendly city a key project. As the first step, the resident participation group was recruited last month and will be fully operational starting this month.

The Women-Friendly City Resident Participation Group is tasked with inspecting and monitoring various aspects of the local community environment to identify gender imbalance factors and inconveniences in daily life and propose improvement plans.

They will also be responsible for checking the progress of women-friendly city projects and promoting them to residents.

The resident participation group consists of a total of 44 members (6 men and 38 women) ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s. The term of office is two years, with the possibility of renewal. Participants will receive activity allowances (reimbursement) within the budget.

According to the policy goals for creating a women-friendly city, the group is divided into four subcommittees: women’s employment, urban space and safety, family-friendly care, and women’s participation and communication. Members were assigned to subcommittees based on their preferred activity areas submitted during application.

The district plans to hold subcommittee meetings and discussions at least once per quarter to collect opinions and actively reflect them in district administration. The resident participation group’s activities will be conducted through small group meetings, Naver Band, ZOOM, and other means until the COVID-19 situation improves.

A women-friendly city refers to a region where policies are operated to ensure gender equality in local policy participation, empowerment of women, care, and safety.

Local governments that achieve certain results can apply, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reviews and selects them.

To this end, the district established a basic plan for creating a women-friendly city last year and partially amended the ‘Seoul Metropolitan City Yongsan-gu Gender Equality Basic Ordinance’ by adding provisions related to the creation of a women-friendly city (Articles 35 to 38) to provide a legal basis.

Along with forming the resident participation group, the district will discover and foster women-friendly city projects in each department (dong), and provide capacity-building education for related officials and the resident participation group.

Additionally, at the beginning of this month, the district started a project to establish a mid- to long-term plan for a women-friendly city through an external professional institution, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.

Mayor Seongjang Hyun of Yongsan-gu stated, “The creation of a women-friendly city requires active participation from residents above all else. We will do our best to actively reflect the specific issues identified and opinions presented by the resident participation group in district administration to create a women-friendly city.”

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