대한민국의 정치판은 완전 4류였고, 앞으로도 계속 이런 추세로 나갈 것이다. 한국의 여성들의 사회적 지위는 서방세계와 비교해서 절대로 성차별에서 뒤지지 않과 동등한 입장에서 권익이 성장됐다고 본다. 오죽했으면 여서부를 폐지해야 한다는 후보들의 주장 있었을까?
지금은 돌아가신 영국의 수상을 지냈던 '마가렛 대처'철의 여인인 번뜩 머리에 떠오른다. 그렇게 강하게 정치를 하면서, 노조놈들을 단칼에 떼려부신 여장부였었지만, 아프리카 사막에서 경주를 하던 아들이 실종됐다는 뉴스에는 모든것을 다 내팽개치고, 어머니의 본능을 보여주면서 오열하는 그순간을 잊을수가 없다. 여성은 생명을 잉태해서 인류의 역사가 계속 이어지게 만드는 유일한, 항상 존경을 받아야 할 대상이다.
한떼의 여성들이 선거날 다가오기 한달전쯤에 서울중심부의 한광장에서 대통령 후보로 나선 남성들을 향해 항의하는 데모가 열렸었다. "여성위해 투표하자" 라는 로고가 새겨진 흰천을 어깨에 두르고, 윤석열 후보를 anti-feminists라고 울부짖으면서 성토를 했었다.
"당신은 대통령 후보가 될 자격이 없는 사람이다. 꺼져라"라고 외쳤었다.
여야의 두후보들은, 3월9일 투표에 앞서, 여권신장에 대한 언급이 없는것을 성토하는 했는데, 두후보들은 여권신장에 대한 정책발표보다는, 두패로 갈려있는 젊은이들의 마음을 잡기위해 온힘을 쏟고 있었다.
젊은이들의 일자리, 하늘높이 치솟는 집값, 반여권주의 등등의 이슈들이 여성들의 분노를 사게된것이다. Feminists들은 전국적으로 퍼져가는 성폭력, 남녀에 대한 고정관념, 사회적, 정치적으로 여성의 진출이 막혀있는 현상들이 극명하게 차별을 받고 있음을 알린 것이다.
꼼수의 선수인 이재명이는 윤석열이가 여성부 폐지를 들고 나오자, 여성부 존속을 주장하는 정책을 들고 응수했었다. 투표일 며칠을 앞두고 여성부를 강조하면서, 젊은 남성들로 부터 지지를 받지 못하게 될것을 느끼자, 온라인상에 '여권주장 코뮤니티'에서 자기만이 여권신장을 주장하는 후보인것처럼 떠들었었다.
심지어 CNN,에 내보낸 성명서에서 " 성차별에 대한 많은 대책을, 즉 여성을 위한, 남성을 위한 정책을 발표했는데, 웃기는것은 쿼타제도를 두어 여성에게 30%의 고위직을 임명하고, 아이를 낳은 엄마에게 여러 보조제도를 만들고, 육아를 위해 직장을 떠나 있을때 보조를 더 많이 해주겠다는 사탕발림 정책을 떠들어 댄것이다.
이렇게 쿼타를 정해 임명하는게 정책인가?. 문재인을 닮아가는 꼼수를 쓴것으로 밖에 해석이 안된다.
애디버그 대학에서 한국학을 강의하는 김여미는 사회가 발달했지만, 젊은이들이 일할 직장구하기가 어려운 현상이 젊은 20대 30대 남성들을 더욱 보수적으로 선회하게 만들었다는 주장이다. 동시에 창원대학에서 철학부교수로 있는 윤지영은 "많은 사람들이 한국사회의 모든 자원들이 즉 조건들이 열악하여 그것이 성차별로 균등한 기회를 만들지 못하고 있다고 지적한다.
"젊은이들이 기회를 찾을때, 그들은 여성이 그들보다 앞서 있는점에 대해 손가락질을 하면서 비난한다"라고.
간호원으로 근무하는 27세의 김주희는 "이번 대선에서 '여권주의'는 이슈로 보여지지 않는다. 그러나 필요에 따라 이용하는 꼼수"라고 지적하면서, 나는 매우 화나는게, 그게 무슨 이유가 될수 있느냐'라고 치부되기 때문이다"라고 주장한다.
창원국립대학 출신의 '윤'양은 만약에 윤석열이 대통령되면 성평등을 위한 더많은 시련을 겪게 될것이라고 주장이다.
"여성가족부"를 폐지하겠다고 주장한 이후로, 그가 대통령되면 가장 먼저 손보게 될것으로 생각된다. 그럴경우 성차별, 여권신장운동같은 사회적 시각은 더 후퇴될것이다"라고 설명이다.
"여성가족부"를 폐지하겠다고 주장한 이후로, 그가 대통령되면 가장 먼저 손보게 될것으로 생각된다. 그럴경우 성차별, 여권신장운동같은 사회적 시각은 더 후퇴될것이다"라고 설명이다.
여기서 나는 서방서계의 민주주의를 주창하는 나라들을 본다. 그들 나라들은 성차별을 느끼지 못할 정도로, 능력위주로 사회적 활동을 하면서 인정받는다고 생각한다. 이재명이가 주장하는것 처럼, 선거에서 여성들의 표를 얻기위한 꼼수로, 여성을 고위직에 30% 임용하겠다는것은, 능력을 무시한 숫자 채우기위한 놀음이라고 믿는다.
길거리에서 구걸하는 거지들의 대부분은 남자들이다. 이런점은 왜 부각 시키지 않나?
여성들은 육아를 하기 때문에 그분야에 대한 사회적 관심을 부추겨서, 엄마가 아이를 양육시키는 점은, 그어느 점보다 존귀하고 고맙고 존경을 받아야 한다는점에 정치꾼들의 관심과 더불어 사회적 관심이 높아져야 한다고 생각한다. 우리사회는 엄마들이 아이 양육과 집안살림하는것은 하잖은일 정도로 오랫동안 생각되여져 왔다는 커다란 반성이 있어야 한다.
그런점을 감안하면 능력이 있는 많은 여성들이 모든것을 포기하고 양육과 집안일에 전념할수밖에 없는점은 여성본인 뿐만이 아니고 사회적으로 커다란 손실이다. 이점을 우리 남성들은 지금부터라도 각성하고, 여성분들의 빛나지 않은 헌신을 높이 존경하고, 정부에서 더 많은 관심, 즉 정부의 많은, 경제적인면에서, 보조를 해주어야 한다. 내가 알기로는 서방세계, 특히 북미 대륙에서 엄마가 되면, 매달 양육비를 지급하고 그외에도 많은 정부의 지원책이 뒤따른다.
이런점이 일상적으로 정부정책에서 활용된다면, 누가 대통령에 당선되든, 굳이 '여성가족부'같은 부서를 둘 필요가 없다고 나는 생각한다.
South Korean presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party campaigns in Busan on March 4.
How feminism became a hot topic in South Korea's presidential election
Updated 10:58 PM ET, Tue March 8, 2022
Seoul, South Korea (CNN)A furious crowd gathered in central Seoul last month to protest against the policies of a man who isn't even in power.
Waving signs and wearing white sashes emblazoned with the words "Vote for Women," they accused presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of attempting to appeal to anti-feminists to garner support ahead of the election.
"You don't deserve to be a presidential candidate, Yoon," the mainly female crowd chanted. "Go away."
The protest highlighted how heated South Korea's gender war has become ahead of the country's March 9 presidential vote, with both leading candidates wading into the issue to win over young voters who are increasingly split along gender lines.
Facing a hypercompetitive job market and skyrocketing housing prices, anti-feminists claim the country's bid to address gender inequality has tipped too far in women's favor. Feminists, meanwhile, point to the country's widespread sexual violence, entrenched gender expectations, and low female representation in boardrooms and in politics as examples of how discrimination against women is still rife.
Feminist protesters at a demonstration on February 27, 2022, in central Seoul.
Surveys show a growing proportion of young men are opposed to feminism -- and conservative candidate and political novice Yoon is attempting to win their support. He's promising to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which he claims is unfair to men, and raise the penalty for falsely reporting sex crimes. CNN approached Yoon's office for comment on his gender policies but did not receive a response.
Meanwhile, liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung of the incumbent Democratic Party has tried to strike a more balanced tone. He says discrimination against men is wrong -- an apparent nod to the views of anti-feminist men -- but has also promised to close the gender wage gap.
The ruling Democratic Party's presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung greets supporters on March 03.
He says he'll keep the gender ministry -- but change its Korean name so that it no longer includes the word "women." But in the last few days of the election, he appears to have accepted that he won't win the young male votes and is proactively courting online feminist communities.
In a statement to CNN, Lee's office said he had created "many gender-related policies" for women and men, including a quota system for women to hold at least 30% for high-ranking public roles, benefits for new mothers and expanded support for paternity leave.
The heated election campaign has left women feeling as if the real issues facing them are being used for political point-scoring. And some worry that if Yoon wins the March 9 election, divisions between genders could widen even further.
People cast their ballots during early voting South Korea's presidential election at a polling station in Seoul on March 4.
The rise of anti-feminists
Since the brutal 2016 murder in Seoul's trendy Gangnam neighborhood of a young woman targeted for her gender, South Korea has faced a reckoning over its attitudes toward women.
Activists pushed to address sexual harassment and widespread discrimination and found an ally in outgoing President Moon Jae-In, who vowed to "become a feminist president" before he was elected in 2017.
But in the years since, some men say the needle has moved too far. Anti-feminists point to statistics showing women are now going to university at a higher rate than men and say that compulsory military service for men gives women an advantage in the jobs market. Some place South Korea's demographic crisis, caused by slipping birth rates, squarely at the feet of feminists.
While in other countries, anti-feminists might be discounted by politicians, in South Korea, these men have made themselves a powerful voter bloc.
Last April, Moon's Democratic Party lost mayoral elections in both Seoul and its second largest city Busan, with exit polls showing young men in their 20s had overwhelmingly shifted their vote to the conservative People Power Party.
And in May the Korean marketing and research firm Hankook Research said a survey of 3,000 adults found that more than 77% of men in their 20s and more than 73% of men in their 30s were "repulsed by feminists or feminism."
"There is a sense of exclusion among men," said the 36-year-old writer Park Se-hwan, who identifies as anti-feminist. "It's now time for us to discuss men in South Korea who in comparison have been largely ignored." Park says he agrees with gender equality but says this feeling of neglect has garnered "a general objection to feminism" among young men.
Park Se-hwan identifies as anti-feminist.
According to Youngmi Kim, a senior lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Edinburgh, social polarization and a lack of employment opportunities for young people has led to men in their 20s and 30s becoming more conservative.
Or, as Yun Ji-yeong, an associate professor in philosophy at Changwon National University, puts it: "Many people are realizing that the (country's) scarce resources are being distributed very unequally."
"When they're looking for the cause, they point the finger at the women who are in front of them."
The struggle facing feminists
To women, the fraught debate over gender isn't just leaving them feeling like a political punching bag -- they say it's also plastering over the real issues they're facing.
Just 15.6% of senior and managerial positions are held by women -- significantly less than the US's 42%. Less than 20% of legislators are women, again well below most OECD countries. Digital sex crimes are so pervasive that they affects the quality of life for women and girls, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), and women continue to face sexism and pressure to meet unrealistic beauty standards.
Feminist protesters at a demonstration in Seoul on February 27.
Yang Ji-hye, a youth rights activist, says many of the anti-feminist movement's claims are not supported by statistics -- and she thinks the way gender is being talked about in the election is "absurd."
"I'm sick of these anti-feminist politics -- it makes me overwhelmed just to say how much women are being discriminated against, when at the same time they say there is reverse discrimination (against men)," she said.
Writer Park Won-ik says people with extreme views on both sides are engaged in a "cultural war." He says it's difficult for others to express their opinions without being threatened. "There's no effort of keeping certain rules as good citizens or as civilized people, whether you're feminists or not," he said.
According to the University of Edinburgh's Kim, Korea still has a "long journey ahead" in terms of gender equality.
Kim Ju-hee, who was at the protests, has felt discriminated against for her gender -- she's been told her looks were part of her job of being a nurse, and at home her female relatives are still expected eat at a small table at the back of the house after ancestral rituals. She also feels frustrated about the way feminism has been used in the election.
Kim Ju-hee, a nurse, at the protest in central Seoul on February 27.
"In this election, feminism is not viewed as an issue, but rather a token," said Kim, 27. "I was very angry that it was used as if it was going to get discarded afterward."
Yun, from Changwon National University, says if Yoon becomes president she expects feminists to face an even greater challenge for equality.
"Since the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is one of the most important promises, I think that it will probably be implemented as a tangible action first," Yun said.
"In that case, I have a concern that gender conflict and women's human rights may go further backward."
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