Kim Hyun-sook "Difficult to Agree with Claims of Backsliding on Women's and Gender Equality Policies"

At the Press Conference: "Comments Coming from an Ideological Approach"

Kim Hyun-sook, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, expressed her position that she "finds it difficult to agree" with women's organizations' claims that gender equality policies have regressed under the current Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

On the morning of the 17th, Minister Kim held a press conference at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family press room in the Seoul Government Complex, stating, "To achieve gender equality, women's participation in political and economic fields must increase. I have worked very hard to achieve these two goals and plan to continue doing so."

Recently, civic groups, including the Korean Women's Associations United, which gathered to prevent the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, labeled Minister Kim as an "obstacle to gender equality" and called for her resignation. They criticized, "Minister Kim denies structural gender discrimination and sympathizes with hate politics that frame gender discrimination as 'gender conflict.' Over the past year, 'women' have been erased from government policies, and 'gender equality' has been deleted."

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Kim Hyun-sook is holding a meeting with reporters at the Government Seoul Office on the morning of the 17th.
[Photo by Ministry of Gender Equality and Family]

Minister Kim responded, "Such claims come from an ideological approach, so I find it difficult to agree," adding, "I think expressions like 'erasing women' and 'obstacle to gender equality' are somewhat excessive."

Regarding the gender wage gap, she explained, "The biggest cause is career interruption," and stated, "We will implement a gender labor disclosure system that publicly reveals gender ratios at hiring and promotion stages in companies and support work-family balance."

She continued, "We are preparing measures to prevent women's career interruptions and facilitate entry into quality jobs. After discussions within the government-wide women's workforce development council, we plan to announce countermeasures," adding, "You will see an upgraded policy for women's economic participation."

Minister Kim also argued that since younger generations experience inequality differently depending on gender, the methods to address these issues should vary accordingly.

She said, "Men feel inequality in terms of compensation related to military service, while women feel inequality in the workplace, so I believe we need to solve problems at each point," and added, "For men, I hope support necessary for employment is provided as a package along with financial compensation."

Regarding criticism that the current government defines power-formation crimes, digital sex crimes, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking crimes as 'five major violences' instead of 'violence against women,' thereby erasing 'women,' she emphasized, "The term 'violence against women' is still frequently used in necessary places such as press releases and official documents," and stressed, "Supporting victims of violence well is a national agenda, and there is absolutely no intention to weaken this."

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